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Re:Amazon investors nuke ethics overhaul and say yes to $212... by 015a on Thursday May 26, 2022 @03:25PM (#31522385)
I agree, and I think the argument "well most of it is stock" is also bullshit. Comp is comp; warehouse workers could be granted RSUs, but they don't (afaik) because reasons. Every dollar he's compensated could be compensation elsewhere. Every share; to someone else.

A classic counter-argument is "well who gets to determine what is fair". I'd counter that with: who determines how much value he, inextricably and uniquely, has added to the company? It's all a farce. No one actually knows (but, oftentimes, the people at the top have bunk reports to justify their position, a privilege line workers don't have).

We need a law which at least begins to lay the foundations for something like: the total all-sources hourly-adjusted compensation for the highest compensated person (employee, contractor, anyone) in any company cannot be more than 1000x the lowest. Regardless of the specifics, the thing I love about that wording is: Amazon absolutely could not afford to pay all of their people $212,000+. But by them saying that, they're in-no-uncertain-terms saying that they're totally unwilling to lower Jassy's comp; drop it to $65M, and now lets try again, can you really not afford to pay everyone at-least $65k? Big Boy Jassy wants a raise, you gotta find the money for everyone; and if you can't, is he really doing that good of a job?

"The talented execs will leave" and go where? Europe? China? Good! The US has massive talent at every traunch of a typical company. Get out! There's dozens of people inside your own company who could do a better job in your seat than you, for a tenth the price, and the only reason they're not sitting there is the gatekeeping every board and exec team participates in to defend their throne.

Re:Amazon investors nuke ethics overhaul and say yes to $212... by __derek__ on Thursday May 26, 2022 @03:59PM (#31522701)
> warehouse workers could be granted RSUs, but they don't (afaik) because reasons.

They were until a few years ago.[1] IIRC, Amazon rolled out an ESPP that was exclusively available to employees not compensated with RSUs.

[1]: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653597466/amazon-sets-15-mini...