What is the bonus at amazon. I see it sometimes but no idea what it means? I thought amazon is only about base, signing bonus, and RSUs.
What is the vesting cycle for these signon bonuses? I heard they are paid monthly but do you need to return it if you leave after 6 months or so?
Stock 5/15/40/40 with the difference in the first year years paid as cash (so if you rather have stock in all four years then just use you cash to buy it). What people seem to issues misunderstand is that in every year stock+bonus=target-salary. In other words, if your target is 250k and your salary 150k then in those first two years you will get cash to make up the difference between 100k and the stock you got those years.
They are paid monthly so there is no clawback if you leave as you only got paid what you earned.
Bonus?
Amazon's comp is different. You have a comp target, say it's $250k. Amazon will then allocate base plus RSU to get you to 250k. Say your base is 150k, then you need 100k RSU to get to your target. But in the first year instead of getting RSU that immediately vest you will get the 100k mostly as cash bonus, and in the second year it'll be a split. So basically a large part of your "RSU" in the first two years is cash but it's going always add up that base+rsu+bonus=250k. Cash bonus at Amazon is really a bridge until your RSU start vesting.
Whatβs the point of not just loading the RSU differently if Amazon pays out of pocket the same amount? How does Amazon come out ahead financially from this?
It's a benefit to employees. You get certainly for the first year and a half because it's paid in cash, and then by the time to start vesting significant numbers of RSU it's had enough time to grow that it's going to be a gain. I guess it costs Amazon the same either way.