Amazon scraps worker bonuses, awards

Amazon is eliminating monthly bonuses and stock awards for warehouse workers and other hourly employees after the company pledged to raise pay to at least $15 an hour.

Warehouse workers for the e-commerce giant in the US were eligible in the past for monthly bonuses that could total hundreds of dollars per month as well as stock awards, said two people familiar with Amazon’s pay policies. The company informed those employees Wednesday that it’s eliminating both of those compensation categories to help pay for the raises, the people said.

Amazon received plaudits when it announced Monday that the company would raise its minimum pay. The pay increase warded off criticism from politicians and activists, and put the company in a good position to recruit temporary workers for the important holiday shopping season.

Even after the elimination of bonuses and stock awards, hourly operations and customer-service workers will see their total compensation increase, the company said in a statement.

“In addition, because it’s no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable,” Amazon said.

Workers whose pay was already above $15 per hour will get hourly raises of $1, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, Ebay accused Amazon of trying to poach sellers for its own platform through Ebay’s internal messaging system.

“We have uncovered an unlawful and troubling scheme on the part of Amazon to solicit eBay sellers to move to Amazon’s platform,” eBay said.

Amazon said it was conducting a thorough investigation of the allegations.