Amazon targeted military spouses in a pandemic recruitment drive. 2 of them say they ended up being paid 33% less than non-military coworkers.

• Two military spouses who joined Amazon as contractors said their pay was cut when they won permanent roles.
• They told Insider they were paid one-third less than non-military permanent coworkers in their team.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-2020 when millions of Americans were losing their jobs, Louise, a military spouse, was looking for work.

On a Facebook group, she came across a job ad that seemed too good to be true: Amazon was recruiting remote contract workers at a rate of nearly $21 an hour — and military spouses specifically were encouraged to apply.

Remote work is a big advantage for military spouses because they often have to relocate. Louise applied and, to her delight, got the job. "I didn't believe it was true up until the supplies ended up at my house," she said, referring to the laptop, headphones, keyboard, and 32-inch screen that Amazon soon sent her.

Her excitement would soon turn to frustration.

She and another military spouse, Amelia, who was hired in the same recruitment drive, told Insider they worked grueling hours before having their wages cut and discovering they were being paid significantly less than coworkers.

Amelia and Louise are not their real names. Both requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from Amazon but Insider verified their identities and employment.

Amelia, who had lost her previous job during the pandemic, said she spotted Amazon's job posting on a Facebook page dedicated to helping military spouses network professionally.

She said the posting stated the positions were being created in response to surging demand. "The whole reason we were hired on was because of COVID," she said. "Orders in Amazon shot up so they needed more people."

Amazon saw an explosion in demand with the pandemic; grocery sales alone tripled in 2020 compared with the prior year.

Louise and Amelia were hired as part of a drive by Amazon to recruit military spouses and veterans to its disruption-management department, which was also known as the relay operations center (ROC).

Both started working for Amazon as contractors in July 2020. Amelia estimated that around 50 military spouses and veterans were hired as contractors as part of the recruitment drive. She and Louise said spouses accounted for most of these hires, and the majority were women.

Upon starting work for Amazon, both women said they were paid just under $21 an hour, as the job ad had promised. A pay stub Amelia shared with Insider shows she took home $20.82 an hour at the time.

The women said their work involved taking back-to-back calls eight hours a day to resolve problems in Amazon's vast delivery network. This included taking calls from drivers who had flat tires or got stuck in traffic, and adjusting their routes, and locating individual packages on delayed flights.

Both said they were told by Amazon managers that if they worked hard, they could convert to permanent employees when their six-month contracts ended.

Both successfully applied for permanent roles in late 2020 but were surprised when Amazon told them the jobs would pay $18.75 an hour — a cut of 10%.

Louise shared with Insider her offer letter for the permanent role, which confirmed the rate of pay. Amelia said her offer included an option for healthcare "but many of us did not opt in because we are military and already have insurance, so essentially none of the benefits were relevant to us."

Amelia shared pay stubs with Insider from before and after she became a permanent Amazon employee. A pay stub from October 2020 — before her full-time conversion — showed an hourly rate of $20.82. Another pay stub, from October 2021 — after her conversion — showed an hourly rate of $18.75.

Amelia said Amazon managers announced the pay cut on a group video call with other military spouses and veterans who worked in the ROC. "I think all of our faces just kind of dropped," she said.

She said the Amazon managers leading the meeting told attendees the pay cut was temporary and the company was figuring out how to handle remote workers.

Amelia and Louise both accepted the pay cut. Amelia told Insider that this prompted her to increase the number of hours she worked at Amazon, from 40 to 50 a week.

But the women said they found it even more upsetting that colleagues in the same department who weren't part of the military spouse and veterans program were being paid $25 an hour — a third more than them — to do the same job.

Both women said that when they were invited to apply for full-time roles, Amazon managers told them to apply for jobs listed with the tag "L2." The women said "L3" jobs were done by employees other than military spouses and veterans.

Amelia said the L2 workers were integrated into the ROC, working closely with L3s and reporting to the same managers. "We interacted with L3s a lot," she said. "In fact, most people didn't even know L2s existed unless you were an L2."

An Amazon email advertising the full-time roles, shared with Insider by Amelia, shows L2 positions described as "virtual" and L3 as "local."

Both women said Amazon managers told them that L3 workers were paid more because they were based in Arizona, where the office was located, and were therefore classed as in-office workers rather than remote workers.

"We started to get really fed up with it," Amelia said, referring to the pay disparity.

"We were told: Just get through peak."

"Peak" is Amazon's word for its busiest time of the year, stretching from November to December and covering the holiday season.

Louise and Amelia said they worked six days a week during peak 2020, including mandatory overtime. Louise said she worked 10-hour shifts during that period, and though she had built-in breaks, she described the work as exhausting.

"No time to be a human, no time to be a wife, a mom, anything like that," she said. "No time to breathe. It was suffocating."

Amelia said Amazon managers promised to review the pay disparity between the L2 and L3 workers in February, after peak. "They were like, 'We're going to adjust your pay, we're going to figure this remote situation out because everyone's going back to the office in February,'" she said.

But when February 2021 came around, a group of 25 military spouses got on a call with management, Amelia said. She said they were told L3 workers worked in-office and therefore had expenses such as travel to factor into their wages.

Amelia said that at the time, everyone, including L3 workers, worked remotely because of pandemic restrictions.

She said the military spouses raised concerns about unequal pay again in June 2021, by which time a formal return-to-office still hadn't happened.

"Their excuse was, 'We can't figure out what to do with you guys wage-wise until everyone's in the office,'" Amelia said. She said managers assured the military spouses and veterans in the ROC that it had presented their case to "higher-ups" but had been rejected.

An Amazon spokesperson told Insider that L2 and L3 roles were paid differently but the levels of remuneration had nothing to do with remote work.

"It's inaccurate to suggest that these roles were compensated differently in 2020 because of someone's location or military status — the compensation was different because the roles had different levels of complexity," the spokesperson said.

"When that changed as the business evolved, we made appropriate adjustments to level and pay — as of January, all individuals hired into these remote roles have been up-leveled to match the current job responsibilities."

The spokesperson added: "We're proud to support military families with opportunities for jobs with good pay and benefits, and we thank them for their service."

Amelia told Insider that the L2 and L3 workers had the "exact same responsibilities." Louise also said Amazon's statement was inaccurate in that L2 and L3 workers did "the same job."

"They would have never leveled us up if these spouses hadn't stayed on them to do the right thing," Amelia said.

The military spouses and veterans repeatedly tried to draw attention to the pay gap over the course of 2021, Amelia said. "We've gone to HR, we've gone to management, we've gone to pretty much everyone outside of Jeff Bezos and the new CEO," she said, referring to Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos in July 2021.

Amelia said Amazon gave the military spouses and veterans a 10% pay increase in January 2022, to $20.63 an hour — still about 20 cents less than they used to make as contract workers, according to pay stubs shared with Insider.

Of Amazon's drive to recruit military spouses and veterans, Amelia said: "It almost feels like they wanted that pat on the back and they wanted that notch on their belt and the recognition of doing the good thing."

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