An Amazon employee, Tara Jones, struggling with financial difficulties due to underpayment, emailed the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, in 2020. While caring for her newborn, Jones discovered that her paycheck was $90 short out of $540. Despite reporting the issue, the problem persisted, causing her to fall behind on bills.
Seeking help, Tara wrote directly to Bezos, explaining her situation: “I’m behind on bills, all because the pay team messed up,” she stated in an email reviewed by The New York Times. “I’m crying as I write this email.”
Unbeknownst to her, this email triggered an internal investigation that uncovered similar pay issues affecting not only her warehouse but potentially 179 others. Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel confirmed that the company resolved the issue and paid affected employees months later.
In another case, Amazon worker James Watts from Chattanooga, Tennessee, reported that his disability payments were stopped for several months in early 2021, impacting his finances. The problem was linked to a software issue that has since been resolved.
Responding to the report, Nantel told The Independent, “We’re disappointed when any of our employees experience an issue with their leave… We’ve audited the period to ensure employees received their pay, and to our knowledge, there are no outstanding issues.”
Following these incidents, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos in July 2021, committed to improving the company’s leave system, with the goal of making Amazon “Earth’s best employer.”