Amazon veterans feel slighted by pay raise to $15 an hour

NEW YORK — Amazon’s announcement that it would raise its hourly minimum wage to $15 has been seen as a win for workers. But some longtime employees say they are losing out.

Those who already made $ 15 will get an extra dollar an hour when the change is made next month, but they will also lose two benefits they relied on: monthly bonuses that could top hundreds of dollars and a chance to own Amazon’s sky-rocketing stock, currently worth nearly $ 2,000 a share.

At least four longtime workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear they would be fired, said the $ 1- an- hour raise would not make up for the lost benefits.

The employees, all of whom work in different warehouses around the country, said the $15 minimum wage was great for new workers, but the math didn’t work out for those who have worked at Amazon’s warehouses for a few years.

“I feel hugely disrespected,” said a worker at a warehouse in North East, Maryland. “The ones who are loyal should be rewarded for loyalty, not smacked in the face.”

According to Amazon, the wage increase will benefit more than 350,000 workers, including full- time, part-time, temporary and seasonal positions, as well as those at its grocery chain Whole Foods.

Economists said the move could put pressure on other large employers to raise wages.

Amazon said in a statement that the changes mean “compensation will be more immediate and predictable.” The Seattle company, which has more than 100 warehouses around the country, said “the significant increase in hourly cash wages more than compensates” for the benefits that will be phased out. But others dispute that. “They must have a different kind of calculator than us,” said an employee at a Pennsylvania warehouse, who estimated she’ll lose out on about $3,000 a year.

From January to September, she made about $150 a month in bonuses tied to attendance and productivity goals. She earned an extra $400 a month in October, November and December during the holiday shopping season when Amazon doubles the bonuses to motivate workers to show up on time and churn out packages quicker.

“They took away all the incentives to work super hard,” she said, estimating that the $ 1 raise will give her about $160 extra a month.

Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research, said taking away benefits from longtime workers can lead to higher turnover. Amazon needs to communicate to workers better if overall compensation is higher, he said, “or you’re going to have morale problems.”