alt Hacker NewsThe "sign-on bonus" comes with serious strings attached. A good friend of mine got royally screwed when he mistook that bonus for real money, then got pushed to the point of burnout and had to leave; Amazon demanded a lot of the money back, but he didn't have it anymore.
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pawelos • yesterday at 8:16 PM
Sign-on bonus is prorated and payed monthly, you definitely don’t need to pay back anything (source: I worked at Amazon).
Maybe your friend talked about relocation bonus, which you need to pay back if you don’t work long enough.
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scarface_74 • yesterday at 9:33 PM
Amazon does not demand your pro rated cash sign on bonus back that you get every pay period for the first two years.
Source: I worked at AWS from 2020-2023.
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I worked at Amazon in 2021 and rage-quit after 9 months. The sign-on bonus I received was paid out monthly, so I didn't have to pay anything back. If it's large enough, they pay it monthly because they know it's very likely you won't make it to the 2nd year.