Amazon Offers $5000 to its Employees to Quit

Amazon has a solution for employees who no longer want to work there — pay them to quit.

Once a year, the company offers to pay full-time associates at Amazon fulfillment centers up to $5,000 to leave the company. Employees are eligible after one year of service, but there is a caveat: Those who accept the offer can never work at Amazon again.

“We want people working at Amazon who want to be here,” Amazon spokesperson Melanie Etches tells It via email. “In the long-term, staying somewhere you don’t want to be isn’t healthy for our employees or for the company.”

The company offers $2,000 to employees who have been at the company one year, and the offer increases by $1,000 per year of tenure, maxing out at $5,000.

This program, which is called Pay to Quit, was first created by online shoe retailer Zappos, which Amazon bought in 2009. Zappos only extended the offer to its newest employees, within the first few weeks of employment, and the “quitting bonus” was set at $1,000.