Amazon Salary Negotiation (expert tips to get a $50k+ increase)

You got an offer at Amazon. Congratulations! Now it’s time to maximize your offer.

The difference between a good Amazon offer and a great one often takes a single conversation. Many candidates leave a $50k+ increase on the table because they fear the Amazon offer negotiation process. 

We’re here to change that. In this guide, we show you five actionable steps you can take so you can have the confidence to negotiate and secure the compensation you deserve. 

Here’s an overview of our recommended steps:

1. Understand Amazon’s compensation structure
2. Find weaknesses in the initial offer
3. Send a counteroffer email to your recruiter
4. Handle their objections
5. (Optional) Get expert help

Read on to start building your confidence in negotiating. Then, book a 1-on-1 session with our Amazon salary negotiation experts to further boost your chances of securing the best possible offer.

Click here to browse our team of salary negotiation coaches

1.  Understand Amazon’s compensation structure ↑

Before negotiating an offer, it’s important to understand a company’s compensation structure, including which components are negotiable. 

Below is a quick overview of Amazon’s compensation structure:

• RSUs (Restrictive Stock Units)
• Sign-on/signing bonus
• Base pay
• Performance bonus
• Equity refreshers
• Benefits and perks

According to Malay, a former Amazon recruiter, “Amazon structures its offers heavily around Total Compensation Target (TCT) rather than focusing solely on base salary.” 

The TCT includes base salary, RSUs (restricted stock units), sign-on bonuses (what Amazon now calls “payouts”), and sometimes equity refreshers.

When Amazon negotiates with you, it’s in the context of the TCT band for the role and level you’re in. 

For example, you might think you’re being offered a lower base salary than your peers in the industry and try to negotiate this. This is a mistake most junior candidates often make. Instead, negotiate with your TCT in mind and include RSUs and sign-on bonuses/payouts, too.

The different components of your Amazon offer are not all equally negotiable. You will typically get most of your increase from RSUs, followed by your base salary, and then your sign-on bonus. 

You’ll see this when you gather offer data for a given role, level, and location.

For example, based on Levels.fyi data for an SDE 2 (E5) software development engineer in the Bay Area, the range and variance for Amazon RSUs is a lot larger than for the sign-on bonus and base salary. 

This range and variance are a great proxy for “room for negotiation”.

1.1 Amazon RSUs (Negotiable)

1.1.1 How negotiable are RSUs? 

For many technology-related roles and senior-level positions at Amazon, RSUs are indeed often a standard part of the compensation package. They're a big draw for attracting and retaining talent, especially in a competitive tech market. 

However, for entry-level or non-technical positions, they might be less common or offered at lesser amounts.

 Amazon's RSU vesting schedule follows a 5-15-40-40 structure:

• Year 1: 5% of the initial grant vests at the end of the first year.
• Year 2: 15% of the grant vests at the end of the second year.
• Year 3: 40% of the grant vests at the end of the third year.
• Year 4: Another 40% vests at the end of the fourth year.

Since Amazon RSUs vest unevenly across four years, Malay says this impacts negotiation.

“This structure means that the majority of equity compensation is earned in years 3 and 4, which can affect long-term retention. You can negotiate for a higher initial grant of RSUs to offset the delayed vesting.”

RSUs' negotiability varies. If you’ve been offered a highly sought-after role, or if you have a strong negotiating position (several competing offers, extensive experience, in-demand skills), you might have some leverage to increase the number of RSUs offered or adjust the vesting schedule to a more favorable timeline.

1.1.2 How do Amazon RSUs work?

RSUs are company shares granted to employees that vest over time. RSUs align employees' interests with the company's success, providing a stake in Amazon's growth.

Unlike stock options, employees don't need to purchase RSUs; they automatically convert to shares once vested. 

Most Amazon employees are eligible for RSUs, except those working fewer than 30 hours per week or at certain job levels.

The number of RSUs granted depends on your role and target compensation level. You'll receive an RSU Award Summary upon joining, detailing your grant.

Your $ grant will be converted to an actual number of restricted stock units (RSUs) before your employment starts. That conversion will use the trailing average closing stock price of the 30 days before your start date.

So, if your grant is worth $100K and Amazon’s stock average close price was $100 in the 30 days before your start date, you’ll be given 1,000 RSUs, which will vest over 4 years.

1.1.3 Valuing your RSUs

There’s a lot more uncertainty around RSUs than there is around any of the other components of your compensation. 

Here are the two biggest factors to think about as you value your RSUs:

• Stock price fluctuations. Malay says, “Since RSUs are tied to Amazon’s stock price, the actual value of your equity will vary depending on the stock’s performance. This is worth considering when evaluating your total compensation.” 
• Likelihood of vesting. Although this probably isn’t on your mind right now, you might decide to leave because you don’t get on with your manager or team. Or you might be fired as part of a reorg. If this happens within 4 years, then you can’t take full advantage of your grant. 

It’s important that you take these aspects into account when assessing and negotiating your offer.

Unless you’re 100% comfortable with the risks described above, we recommend that you negotiate higher RSUs but also a higher base and sign-on, which are more certain financial benefits.

1.2. Amazon sign-on bonus/payout (Very negotiable)

1.2.1 How negotiable is Amazon’s sign-on bonus/payout?

Amazon offers sign-on bonuses/payouts to attract and retain talent, especially during peak seasons or in areas with labor shortages. The payouts help to make the positions more appealing to potential hires.

Malay shares that Amazon frequently offers large sign-on bonuses to offset the lower base salary and front-load compensation in the first two years. 

“Sign-on bonuses are highly negotiable and can sometimes be increased based on competing offers or if you bring specific expertise.”

Even so, Amazon's signing bonuses aren't as significant as those of other peers in the industry (e.g., Google, Meta). 

In fact, if you look at recent reports for roles such as SDE and PM on Levels.fyi, you’ll notice that the majority of candidates have not received any bonuses. Perhaps they’ve chosen to forego it in favor of maximizing their RSUs instead. Or perhaps they haven’t negotiated to include it in their TCT.

If you do want to negotiate for a sign-on bonus, here are two main ways to think about this component:

• An amount that helps cover any bonuses (e.g., performance bonus) or unvested equity you’re walking away from at your current company.
• If you’re not walking away from anything, it can also be interesting to look at it as a bridge between your start date and your first RSU vesting date.

1.2.2 How does Amazon’s sign-on bonus work?

Amazon offers sign-on bonuses to new hires and returning employees. The eligibility criteria can vary depending on the position and location.  

Sign-on bonuses are generally *more* negotiable than RSUs.  Experienced candidates, those with multiple offers, and individuals with high-demand skills typically have better negotiating power.  The success of your negotiation often depends on how strongly Amazon wants you.

Sign-on bonuses at Amazon are typically paid out in installments rather than a lump sum. This means that the bonus amount is divided and added to the employee's paycheck over a specified period, usually the first two years of employment.

For example, if an employee receives a $30,000 sign-on bonus, they might get an additional $1,250 per paycheck over the first year.

In some cases, employees may need to repay the sign-on bonus if they leave the company before a certain period, typically within the first year or two of employment. This ensures that employees stay with the company for a minimum duration. 

1.3. Amazon base salary (Moderately negotiable)

1.3.1 How negotiable is Amazon’s base salary?

Base salaries vary by job function and rarely exceed $175K, except for candidates in New York City and San Francisco, where L5 role levels and in-demand technical roles have a cap of $350K. 

In contrast, Google and Meta have Finance teams who may grant offers beyond the recommended salary band on a case-by-case basis.

It’s common for Amazon recruiters to put you at the bottom or middle of the base salary band in their initial offer. Base salary bands are a lot narrower than RSU bands. You’ll be able to achieve a base increase by negotiating, but it won’t be as big as your RSU increase.

One crucial tip from Malay: “If you're at the top of a level’s band, you may want to discuss the promotion trajectory during negotiations.”

You’ll also want to ask about Amazon’s recently announced pay structure overhaul. Based on this shift, performance ratings at the company can greatly affect your potential pay increase and promotion trajectory.

1.3.2 How does Amazon’s base salary work?

Amazon’s base salary follows the typical FAANG model. Each role, level, and location has a base salary band. The band is narrower at junior levels than at more senior levels, where there's more room for negotiation.

Your base salary is paid biweekly in the US and monthly in most other countries.

1.4. Amazon performance bonus (Not included)

1.4.1 How negotiable is Amazon’s performance bonus?

Malay says, "Amazon does not typically offer performance bonuses as part of its compensation package. Instead, the package focuses on RSUs and sign-on bonuses."

This is different from some companies that include annual performance bonuses in their total compensation.

1.4.2 How does Amazon’s performance bonus work?

Amazon doesn’t typically give performance bonuses as a one-time cash bonus. Instead, it rewards great performance ratings with pay increases. Unfortunately, it also penalizes low ratings with a paycut, according to the recent pay structure overhaul.

1.5 Amazon’s equity refreshers (Not negotiable)

Equity refreshers are additional grants of stock given to employees periodically, usually during annual performance reviews. These refreshers help maintain competitive compensation and incentivize employees to stay with the company long-term.

Amazon may offer equity refreshers to employees who have been working at the company for at least one full year. After your initial grant vests, Amazon may or may not offer equity refreshers based on your performance ratings. 

Malay says, “While equity refreshers aren’t part of the initial offer, understanding how they work can help you evaluate the long-term value of your compensation.”

Unlike other FAANG companies, though, Amazon incorporates its refreshers into its total compensation target (TCT) model. This system takes into account current grants when determining how many grants you’ll receive in the future in order to make sure it doesn’t exceed the promised amount. 

You should ask about equity refreshers during your negotiations. But just be aware that the vast majority of recruiters will shy away from sharing any details, which makes it a component that’s not negotiable in practice.

1.6 Amazon’s benefits and perks (Not negotiable)

Amazon offers a comprehensive benefits package to its employees. Here are some of the standard benefits included in an Amazon job offer:

• Health Benefits - medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings accounts; employee assistance program for mental health and financial counseling
• Financial Benefits - 401(k) savings plan; life and disability insurance
• Paid Parental Leave - up to 20 weeks for birthing mothers and six weeks for adoptive parents; Leave Share program, which allows employees to share their parental leave with a spouse or partner
• Work-Life Balance - Paid Time Off (PTO) for personal time, vacation, and holidays
• Career Development - Career Choice Program, where Amazon pre-pays 95% of tuition and fees for courses in high-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to an employee's current role; Upskilling 2025, where Amazon has committed $1.2 billion to provide education and skills training programs for employees.
• Family Support - child and eldercare referrals; adoption assistance
• Additional Perks - employee discounts and commuter services

 Amazon’s benefits and perks aren’t negotiable.

2. Find weaknesses in the initial offer ↑

Now that you understand Amazon’s compensation components, your next step should be to find weaknesses in the initial offer you receive. You’ll then use these weaknesses as arguments for your counteroffer in Step 3.

We recommend breaking down your research into two steps. 

• First, research ranges for your main compensation components (base salary, sign-on, RSUs) using public data sources. 
• Second, you should research the other benefits you’re being given (e.g., remote policy, time-off, etc.) and identify where they fall short compared to your current company or other companies you’re in the process with.

2.1 Research ranges for the different compensation components

For the main compensation components (GSUs, sign-on bonus, and base salary), you should identify ranges for your role, level, and location. This is similar to the work we’ve done for the Amazon L5 Software Engineer in the SF Bay Area covered in the previous section.

You should use multiple sources when establishing these ranges. A few we recommend include Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, Comparably, and Salary.com. 

As you do your research, remember that there’s a time lag between the moment offers are reported on these websites and the time at which they were actually made. In practice, this means that the ranges you will find will be lower than what’s currently being used by Amazon. 

After doing this work, you should have a sense of how much you can ask for for each compensation component.

It’s important to stay realistic as you do this exercise. Here are two sanity checks we recommend making before settling on specific numbers you’re going to ask for.

• Don’t expect to get to the very top end of the range for all components

Broadly speaking, there are two extremes. If your aim is to maximize total compensation and you’re comfortable with the risks associated, then you could focus on maximizing your RSUs. If your priority is more certainty, then focus more on base salary and the sign-on bonus.

• Be realistic about the skill set you bring to Amazon

For instance, in mid-2025, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy shared that the company is keen to hire more engineers in robotics and AI, even amid job layoffs. As a consequence, people with those skill sets are the most likely to achieve the highest total compensation for a given level and location.

2.2 Ask questions to your recruiter to highlight weaknesses in the offer

Another way you can uncover strong negotiation arguments is by asking questions to your recruiter. The objective of this fact-finding exercise is to highlight differences between Amazon’s compensation and other companies (including your current employer).

Here are five example questions you could ask your recruiter. You should adjust this list based on the strengths of the compensation package of your current employer and other companies you are in the process with.

Sign-on bonus

• Question: I noticed that there was no sign-on bonus in the initial offer you sent. My understanding was that Amazon routinely offered sign-on bonuses to new hires, as do other FAANG and tech companies. Could you confirm if that’s something that’s available for this position?
• Goal: Amazon recruiters often leave sign-on bonuses out of their initial offer. This question is a simple way to point out the omission.

Discounted stock-purchase program

• Question: Does Amazon provide a discounted stock-purchase program? When would I be eligible to participate in the program?
• Goal: At the time of writing, Amazon does not provide that benefit, whereas other FAANG and top companies do. You’re highlighting that weakness.

Remote work policy

• Question: Can you clarify what Amazon’s remote work policy is?
• Goal: At the time of writing, Amazon has announced a full 5-day RTO policy, which may be less flexible than your current company or other companies you’re in process with.

Time off

• Question: What’s Amazon’s vacation policy?
• Goal: At the time of writing, Amazon’s paid time off for new hires is 15 days per year (for US offices), which might be lower than your current company or other companies you’re in the process with.

3. Send a counteroffer email to your recruiter ↑

3.1 Consider setting a “walk-away” number

How will you know if you’ve negotiated successfully?

Before starting a negotiation, it can be helpful to write down your “walk-away” number. Your “walk-away” number is the minimum number or set of conditions you’re willing to accept.

If you manage to negotiate an offer that’s above that number, you’ll accept it. If you don’t, then you’ll walk away and stay at your current company, or continue interviewing.

That number or set of conditions is subjective and results from a lot of different factors, including: the research you’ve done in step 2, your other options, other personal circumstances, etc.

Having that number in mind during the negotiation will enable you to keep a cool head and to know when to accept the offer or move on.

There are many ways to make a counteroffer. Here are two we recommend considering:

• Share your walk-away number with your recruiter 

Pros: It’s simple and minimizes back and forth. It also makes it clear to your recruiter how much the initial offer needs to be increased to bring you on board. 

Cons: You might not be able to maximize your total compensation because your walk-away number could be lower than the maximum offer Amazon was willing to make you. You also obviously can’t use that approach if the initial offer you received is already higher than your walk-away.

• Start the negotiation with a higher number than your walk-away 

Pros: The main benefit of the second approach is that it has more upside than the first one. You’re more likely to maximize total compensation using that approach. 

Cons: It will involve more questions, pushback, and back and forth with your recruiter. In other words, it’s more work and discomfort to go through. Working with a seasoned job offer negotiator can help a lot if you pick that approach.

3.2 Write your counteroffer email

Once you’ve gathered all the data you need and decided on the approach you pick, it’s time to make your counteroffer. 

Whatever approach you pick, we recommend sending an email containing your counteroffer and then suggesting a call to the recruiter for two main reasons:

• First, an email puts you in complete control of what you’re communicating, and so you won't be derailed by questions the recruiter throws at you. 
• Second, your recruiter will be able to easily forward that email to their team to review and increase your offer.

Here are email template examples you could use, depending on which negotiation approach you decide to take.

If you choose a flexible counteroffer approach:

You can adapt these emails to your situation or write your own. Either way, we recommend you follow a similar structure and hit the following key points:

• Reiterate how excited you are to join.
• Thank them for answering your questions.
• Lay out what you believe is fair compensation for your skill set.
• Clearly ask them to take this request to their compensation team.
• Offer time to discuss this with them if needed.

4. Handle their objections ↑

If your skill set is in high demand, or if you’ve done extremely well in the interviews, then your Amazon recruiter might reply with an improved offer immediately. But in a lot of cases, they’ll actually object to your request without taking it to the compensation team.

Here’s a list of common objections and how to handle them. As you work through these objections, remember that your objective is for your recruiter to take your request to the compensation team, which is the one setting your numbers.

• “We don’t have flexibility.”

Reiterate that you’re excited to join and that you recognise you’re asking for a significant bump but that you’d greatly appreciate it if their team could take a second look to try to close that gap.

• “Would you accept $x?”

Reiterate that your ideal goal would be the one that you stated in your initial email. And that you’d greatly appreciate it if the compensation team could take a second look to try to close the gap between the initial offer and the numbers you shared.

• “Are you sure you’re that interested in Amazon?”

Reiterate that you’re absolutely thrilled to join, but that the last thing you want is to start working there and have doubts about being compensated at the market rate. You want to be able to focus 100% on the job and, therefore, ask that the compensation team take a second look at your numbers.

• “Are you sure about your data?”

Explain that your data is based on publicly available sources as well as conversations with other recruiters and people you know working in similar positions to yours. And reiterate that you’d greatly appreciate it if they could take this back to their team to try to close the gap.

After handling these objections, your recruiter should agree to take things back to their team, and you’ll receive an updated offer within a few days.

Watch this video for the 10 rules of salary negotiation.

Salary negotiation resources ↑

We also recommend the resources below for your further salary negotiation preparation.

You can learn more from our job offer negotiation guides:

• Product manager salary negotiation guide
• 10 rules of salary negotiation
• Meta salary negotiation guide
• Google salary negotiation guide
• Apple salary negotiation guide

Other salary negotiation resources:

• Ultimate Negotiation Guide (American Negotiation Institute)
• 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer (Harvard Business Review)
• How to Negotiate Your Salary in the Age of Pay Transparency Laws (Harvard Business Review)
• O*net (Department of Labor-sponsored website that provides a comprehensive look at the skills required for specific jobs across all industries, plus median pay per job)
• H-1B Data (For foreign nationals working for U.S. employers)
• Payscale (Salary comparison website) 
• Glassdoor (Salary comparison website)

Get expert support from a professional negotiator ↑

Our coaching team has run thousands of salary negotiations as recruiters and hiring managers. They negotiate daily and are therefore extremely comfortable with the process.

A negotiation done well should usually yield $10k+ to $100k+ in increase, depending on your role and level. So spending $150 to $500 on getting help from a coach has a huge ROI (at least 10x).

Here’s what our salary negotiation coaches can help you with:

• Help you understand how "hot" the overall hiring market is right now
• Finding the weaknesses in your initial offer
• Determining what a reasonable total compensation is for you
• Practicing mock negotiations over the phone
• Giving you advice in situations we haven’t covered above