How Much Does Amazon Pay?

Salary has been traditionally a taboo subject for most Americans to discuss. Most people would rather describe the most embarrassing moment of their lives than tell a coworker how much they make. But that is changing.

New regulations across the country, like New York City’s pay transparency law, are forcing employers to publish salary information for jobs publicly. While the information might not reveal an exact paycheck, it lets workers know where they stand relative to each other.

The average U.S. tech worker earned a record high of $104,566 in 2021. While that sum doesn’t take into account other forms of compensation, like stock options and equity, it does paint a picture of how lucrative working in the industry can be—by comparison, at the end of 2021, the average U.S. salary was just $1,010 a week or approximately $52,520 a year.

Amazon’s Pay Scale

Amazon’s sprawling tech and logistics organizations couldn’t operate without its rigid level system to sketch out some form of hierarchy. The company’s system starts at level one (L1), as you’d expect, and stretches to level 12.

Typically L1 through L3 are support staff like fulfillment center workers, security and custodial staff. Many of the company’s technical positions start at L4 for fresh undergraduates or L5 for applicants with an MBA and are designated as individual contributors. Beyond that, Manager roles emerge at around L6, Senior Managers enter the picture at L7 and hard-working employees can become a Director at L8. Above Director, employees begin to enter executive roles—think VPs, SVPs and C-suite roles—which equate to L9, L10 and L11.

There is only one L12 at Amazon, and that level is the company’s CEO. Jeff Bezos was previously the e-commerce giant’s only L12, but since he decided to step down, Andy Jassy has taken up that mantle.

Amazon has come under fire from its employees in the last year over its relatively low base pay compared to organizations of a similar size. Workers’ pay criticism grew even louder when the stock market began to slow down and the stock options that Amazon rewarded its employees with became a less-appealing form of compensation. The situation reached its peak earlier this year and Amazon announced it would more than double the maximum base salary for white-collar workers—from $160,000 to $350,000.

Software Engineer

Entry-level Software Engineers enter Amazon at L4 and create the systems and code for the company’s cloud, website, Alexa voice assistant and more. According to data from Levels.fyi, an L4 can expect to earn around $170,000 per year. That number jumps to $248,000 at L5 and climbs all the way to $760,000 at L8. However, it should be noted that these numbers are bound to increase after Amazon’s February announcement that it would double its maximum base pay.

Hardware Engineer

Amazon’s Hardware Engineers are the brains behind its physical tech products, including its lineup of smart speakers, Kindle e-reader, Ring doorbells and dozens of other consumer products. A Hardware Engineer can join Amazon as an L4, making an average of $151,000 per year. This sum is generally lower than their peers at other companies on the software engineering side, although it grows to $457,000 as an L7.

Product Designer

An entry-level Product Designer typically enters Amazon’s hierarchy as an L4 with an average of $161,000 in annual compensation. However, according to Levels.fyi’s data, the position doesn’t have as much room for salary growth at Amazon and can expect to earn $217,000 as an L5 and to top out at $277,000 as an L6. Glassdoor places these numbers even lower and reports that the average Product Designer base salary is $131,017 and a Senior Product Designer can command a base pay of around $171,713.

Recruiter

Recruiters are the initial touchpoints of Amazon’s talent pipeline and help identify and hire the next wave of technical and business-minded employees. The role starts out as an L4, making an average of $91,000 per year before graduating to $139,000 as an L5, and $218,000 as an L6.

Marketing

Like many other teams with the tech and logistics behemoth, Amazon’s marketing hierarchy starts at L4. Levels.fyi’s data places the average introductory base salary on the marketing team at $94,000; as employees grow their skill sets and climb the ranks they graduate to L5 and can expect around $153,000. At L6, a marketing employee can earn approximately $196,000 and at L7 they can bring in $350,000.

Sales

The sales team is the revenue engine for Amazon’s enterprise offerings like its AWS cloud and Alexa for Business services. These salespeople have an a-typical pay structure compared to other positions on this list as they also earn commission on all deals they close. Because of this, it can be hard to pin down the average compensation on Amazon’s sales team. Levels.fyi places the average pay of an L4 sales team member at $130,000. The sales team’s average annual compensation jump’s to $195,000 at L5, $266,000 at L6 and $401,000 at L7.