The A to Z Grinch

Employees across the country are accusing Amazon of ruining Christmas with its Oct. 2 decision to raise the minimum wage to $15.

[...] “We plan our lives around our pay,” says a fulfillment center worker in the Midwest. “How many families just got their holiday season cut to shreds?”

What did Amazon do?

Employees got restricted stock units, shares that would vest after a certain amount of time at the company, as well as variable compensation pay, or VCP. In non-Amazon jargon, it’s essentially a form of incentive pay. For most of the year, VCP allowed people to make a monthly bonus of up to 8% if they had good attendance and the facility met its goals.

However, in October, November and December — peak sales season for Amazon, which shipped more than 1 billion items during the 2016 holidays — maximum VCP would double to 16% in many locations.

Then, Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15. It was funny when so many employees cheered the news. Oh, Amazon isn't a charity.

Then came Oct. 2. The company wiped out VCP and (much of) the stock program in one fell swoop.

Still, that's $30,000 a year with two weeks off. That's a reasonable baseline.