Peter Mondrose
Silicon Valley employers offer some of the best 401(K) plans in the United States but that isn’t the case for Amazon employees.
Amazon’s workplace just came under attack for some rather brutal tendencies, and now Bloomberg is reporting that its retirement investment options are also falling behind its peers.
Bloomberg says Amazon’s 401(K) matching is below average and made entirely of Amazon Stock.
Amazon’s 401(k) came last in Bloomberg’s ranking of the plans offered by the top 50 companies in the S&P 500.
A survey by Aon Hewitt of 400 large employers found that one in every eight plans with a company stock fund in their 401(k) made matching contributions in company stock.
In terms of actual dollar contribution, Amazon also falls short. The company offers a match of $1,600 for an employee earning $80,000 per year. That same employee would receive $2,800 from Facebook and $2,400 from Oracle, Apple, and Microsoft.
There is one important factor to keep in mind, Amazon employees do have the option to immediately reallocate their funds out of Amazon stock, however, they can’t move that money back into company shares after it has been moved.
Because of some rather stringent requirements and confusion over the place, many lower paid Amazon employees are simply refusing to use the 401(K) option from the company.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has promised to examine working conditions at the company and says he will not tolerate “benevolent” management. Hopefully, he will also take a closer look at the company’s retirement packages along the way.
