13 percent raise for Amazonians

A friend works as a “DevOps Engineer” at Amazon in Maskachusetts. She just got a 13 percent raise, not performance-based, to compensate her for inflation and prevent her from quitting.

State-sponsored NPR today says that the inflation rate is just 8.5 percent: “U.S. inflation rises 8.5 percent, sharpest increase since 1981”. Is that number consistent with our Lived Experience?

What if you want to buy a replacement rebuilt engine for your little airplane? There was a 14 percent price increase in July 2021. There was an additional 15 percent price increase in March 2022 (Rotorcorp). So prices are up 31 percent compared to a year ago? Not if we hold delivery time constant. The Rotorcorp article:

Perhaps the most challenging issue out of Lycoming is not just the spiraling prices, but the extended and growing lead times. At time of this writing, Rotorcorp is still waiting on Cylinder kit orders placed in July of 2021 and has had lead times “bumped” numerous times to in excess of 12 months for some parts. Engines are now in excess of 8 months.

Rotorcorp is responding with increased rolling inventory replenishment orders to maintain critical spares stock to support our customers, but we are HIGHLY encouraging customers approaching 2200 hour service, or needing engine overhaul/replacement to place their cylinder and engine orders up to 9 months ahead of anticipated delivery.

So the apples-to-apples price might be 50 percent higher (you’d have to buy out someone else’s order to get an engine within a few weeks as was previously standard).

Let’s try not to ask about the rebuild price on the engine in this P-40 (from Sun ‘n Fun 2022):

6 thoughts on “13 percent raise for Amazonians

  1. The lion kingdom is 6 months from rent pocalypse. The last fed meeting minutes show them becoming comfortable with high inflation, as expected. Instead of reducing the balance sheet, they’re back to phasing in a reduction “over a period of three months or modestly longer if market conditions warrant.”

  2. Amazon just had some highly-publicized labor union organizing. Might be seen as a way to head off the discontent that would lead to further union success…

  3. Yes what is the rebuild cost for that?! I heard it was $250K about five years ago. Thank god my engine was basically zero timed 4 years ago.

  4. If Amazon is now hiring DevOps Engineers then something fundamentally has changed in the DNA of the company that I haven’t noticed. Maybe, your friend is in a team that has a ridiculously high number of sev2 tickets and the manager is going rogue by hiring DevOps? For the next dive and save doc I write, I’m going to list the reason as “inflation” and see how HR responds..

    • Longtimer: It looks like Amazon is the world’s best place to be what used to be called a “sysadmin” and is now upgraded to “DevOps Priest/Czar/Executive/Superstar/Engineer/etc.”. https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/1422800/devops-engineer says “We have innovative benefit offerings, and host annual and ongoing learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences.” Maybe some of these could be adapted for K-3 and used as an after-school supplement for Florida kids who are being cruelly denied the opportunity to learn about these topics.

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