Should you leave? Yeah, probably, but only because that's my general advise to most Amazon SDEs. Many (but certainly not all) of the teams there are not super fun to work for. Odds are you'd be happier at any given alternative. Maybe your team's great, but you seem pretty unsatisfied, so yeah, leave.
Should you leave because of the money? Probably not, no. You're at the bottom of a new pay grade. You'll probably be making more over the next couple of years, and if you're on track to Principal, whoo boy is there money there. On the other hand, they say a recent promotion is a great time to quit. Go interview with Facebook or whoever and see if they'll pay more for an Amazon SDE 3 than Amazon will. Who knows, maybe they'll even buy you your unvested shares.
Only in our industry...
Just because the numbers are bigger, doesn't mean it is less deserving of being fair.
(1) Find a way to make more money.
(2) Appeal to the sense of fairness to get sympathy from the community.
Sadly, according to US federal law (4 U.S.C. §§ 888), anyone who earned a total compensation in excess of 7 times national average individual median income, loses the right to option (2). Any attempt to exercise it will result in penalties such as heavy downvoting and ridicule on social media.
If not for these harsh legal restrictions, I would have offered you my very sincere sympathy and words of support.
The good news is that with your fast career progression at Amazon, and willingness to work hard, you will likely significantly increase your compensation when you enter the job market again.
As you found, that is not law.
By the way, I also happily accept gifts myself :)
Why such a weird number? Because it takes leap years into account: 365.24 × 5/7 × 8
*edited a typo.
Parental? Maternal leave is also unpaid AFAIK.
This attitude is why there's been so much pushback against tech in places like San Francisco and Seattle.
Hard work, navigating to the right projects, and managing both upwards and down... senior and junior people on my part... I feel a bit ripped off. I'm not sure I would have wanted to get promoted knowing where my comp now falls.
The thing I'm unhappy about is that my target comp isn't actually that much more than where it already was as an SDE 2.
Without going into specific numbers, what Amazon does is if the stock value goes up, you only reap the benefits insofar as your existing grants are worth more. That means if you're above the target comp they assigned you, then you get no additional stock.
My job role as an SDE 3 has changed. I have more responsibilities and the influence I built as an SDE 2 has solidified. It's not easy by any means.
I'm going to just a bit longer as there is some initial vest that's wrapping up early next year... and then I go somewhere else.
My total comp this year is upwards of $250k because of the stock appreciation, but basically I got shafted with the promo raise. My salary and total comp didn't increase. I'm just reaping a higher stock price of vested shares.
Edit In response to the article >A warehouse worker hired now at Amazon who stays until retirement would leave with a fraction of that.
A buddy of mine works at the NYT in a tech role. NYT isn't doing anything different than Amazon. It takes a lot of nerve to write these kinds of articles... Hypocrisy at its finest.