Amazon's company-paid long-term disability plan is stronger than the typical employer plan, which generally insures base salary only and caps the benefit at $10,000 to $15,000 a month, and that is exactly the reason an Amazon engineer, product manager, or program lead can reasonably assume the question is settled. Third-party summaries of the plan put the benefit at 60% of predisability earnings up to $25,000 a month, and describe the earnings figure as including RSUs vested in the prior twelve months. The gap it leaves grows with seniority.

Seaworthy is an independent disability insurance brokerage. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Amazon, and the plan facts below come from Amazon's published benefits overview and from third-party plan summaries, cited inline. Your own plan documents govern.

What does Amazon's long-term disability plan cover?

Amazon's published benefits overview for US employees lists two company-paid disability benefits for employees scheduled 30 or more hours a week. Short-term disability carries a 7-day waiting period, pays for up to 26 weeks, and provides "60% of eligible salary up to certain limits." Long-term disability carries a 180-day waiting period, pays "60% of eligible salary up to certain limits," and includes "a pre-existing condition exclusion provision" (Amazon.jobs benefits overview). Basic life insurance is listed at two times annual base salary.

The overview does not print the caps or the earnings definition, so that detail comes from third-party summaries. A disability-law firm's October 2025 analysis of the plan identifies The Hartford as the insurer, puts the benefit at 60% of monthly predisability earnings up to $25,000 a month, describes an own-occupation test for the first 24 months followed by an any-occupation standard, a 24-month limit on mental health and substance-related claims, a Social Security offset, and a predisability earnings definition that includes sign-on bonuses, incentive pay, and RSUs paid in the twelve months before the last day actively at work (Monahan Tucker Law). A Seattle wealth-management firm's May 2025 review reaches the same $25,000 figure and notes that the short-term plan counts base salary only while the long-term plan counts RSUs (Brighton Jones). Plan terms change, and none of these sources is the plan document itself, so treat the figures as a starting point and confirm them in the summary plan description Amazon provides.

Where does the plan leave a gap for a corporate employee?

The benefit is taxable

When the employer pays the premium, the benefit is generally taxable as income, so a 60% pre-tax benefit replaces a noticeably smaller share of what you took home. How much smaller depends on your bracket and state, and a tax professional is the right person to run that number for your situation.

The $25,000 cap binds above roughly $500,000 of earnings

At 60%, a $25,000 monthly maximum is reached once predisability earnings pass roughly $500,000 a year, and above that line every additional dollar of compensation is uninsured by the plan. Amazon raised its base-salary maximum to $350,000 in February 2022 (CNBC), and the RSU component for a senior individual contributor or manager can carry total earnings well past the point where the cap binds.

A twelve-month lookback meets a back-loaded vesting schedule

Amazon's new-hire RSU grants are widely described as vesting on a back-loaded four-year schedule, 5% in year one, 15% in year two, and 40% in each of years three and four, with refresh grants on their own schedule (TrueWealth Financial Partners). The plan is reported to measure predisability earnings over the twelve months before the last day of active work. Put those together and the benefit depends heavily on when a disability begins. On a $400,000 new-hire grant at a flat share price, the year-two vest is $60,000 and the year-three vest is $160,000, so an engineer disabled twenty-six months in has $60,000 of RSU income in the earnings figure where the same engineer at month 38 would have $160,000. A refresh-grant lull, a share-price drop in the lookback year, or a disability date that falls just before a vest all move the number the same direction.

Own-occupation lasts 24 months

Third-party summaries describe an own-occupation test for the first 24 months of a claim, after which the plan is reported to pay only if you cannot perform the duties of any gainful occupation you are reasonably fitted for by education, training, or experience, subject to an earnings threshold. For a software engineer, that is the point at which "you can still use a computer" becomes the question. The same summaries describe a 24-month limit on mental health and substance-related claims, which matters in an occupation whose disability risk profile includes mental health and burnout alongside repetitive strain and cognitive conditions.

The plan belongs to Amazon

Group coverage is the employer's contract. It ends when employment ends, it generally pays only for a disability that began while you were still on the plan, and a pre-existing condition exclusion typically resets with any new employer's plan. The 2025 layoffs made this concrete for a lot of people at once. Our group vs. individual guide for tech workers covers the general version of each of these limits; the paragraphs above are what they look like inside Amazon's plan specifically.

How does an individual policy fit alongside Amazon's plan?

An individual own-occupation policy answers each of those gaps. You own it, so it comes with you through a layoff, a move to a startup, or a competitor's offer. It is indemnity coverage, so it pays its stated monthly benefit regardless of what the group plan pays and does not offset against Social Security. A true own-occupation definition holds for the full benefit period instead of switching to an any-occupation test at month 25. Benefits from a policy you pay for with after-tax dollars are generally received tax-free, though tax treatment varies and a tax professional should confirm it for you. And because technology occupations sit outside the high-risk group that carriers cap, full-benefit-period mental health coverage is available to a tech professional at every one of the five major carriers we place, with California the state where the options narrow (our tech mental health coverage guide has the carrier-by-carrier detail).

Sizing works from documented earned income. Individual carriers generally credit base salary directly, average bonus over about two years, and count vested RSUs as the W-2 wages they become once a recurring pattern is documented, while unvested grants stay outside the calculation. On Amazon's schedule that means a year-two employee documents a small RSU history and a year-four employee documents a large one, which is why the ability to raise the benefit later without new medical underwriting matters here more than at an employer with even quarterly vesting. A future increase option is the rider that does that. Each pay component is worked through in our RSU and equity compensation guide.

Carriers publish issue and participation limits by income and count existing group coverage when deciding how much individual benefit to issue, which is the one point where the two layers coordinate, so the individual policy is built to fill the space above the group plan rather than to duplicate it. In our placement experience a single carrier will issue around $20,000 a month for most high earners, and larger totals are possible by combining carriers. For income around $800,000 and above, one carrier's executive program can reach a $60,000 monthly benefit where a group plan sits underneath it; our executives guide covers that program and its state exclusions.

Software engineers, product managers, and data scientists generally land in one of the most favorable occupation classes, but the labels do not transfer between carriers. Ameritas calls its top white-collar class 6A, Principal runs a 6A+ tier above 6A, and MassMutual tops out at 5A/5, a band a software engineer reaches with a computer science degree or five or more years in the career. Principal does not offer 6A in California, and its top office classes in California and New York run 5A-Select, so a Seattle engineer and a Bay Area engineer at the same level are not always quoted the same class.

Can Amazon employees get a discount on individual coverage?

Yes. As of 2026, Amazon employees can qualify for a multi-life discount of around 20 percent at one of the five major carriers Seaworthy places. The policy is fully underwritten and individually owned, with the same own-occupation definition, riders, and portability as coverage bought alone, and the discount applies to each participant's own premium. The program is not exclusive to any brokerage, availability and the exact rate can vary by state, and the arrangement is not sponsored or endorsed by Amazon. Our multi-life disability insurance guide explains how these arrangements work and why the contract quality does not change.

A 20 percent discount at one carrier does not settle the comparison on its own. The discounted carrier's own-occupation language, its treatment of RSU income, the class it assigns, the mental health provision, and the monthly benefit it will issue against Amazon's group plan all have to be weighed against the other four. In our quotes a discounted carrier is often the right answer and sometimes it is not, which is the reason to run all five rather than accept the one with the discount attached. Amazon is one of several hundred employers, health systems, and training programs with a program on file, all listed in the discount program directory.

When should an Amazon employee buy?

Earlier than the vesting schedule makes it feel necessary. Underwriting reads your medical record as it stands on the application date, and Seaworthy's 2026 review of its placed book found an exclusion or rating on roughly 28% of policies, and mental and nervous conditions ahead of every other cause (State of Disability Underwriting). We negotiate at issue for exclusions to be reconsiderable and get them removed with reasonable regularity once a clean interval passes, commonly about two years after issue, but a policy that never needed the exclusion is the better outcome. Buying in year one or two, when the RSU income in the file is small, also locks in the rate and health class before the year-three vest makes the coverage gap obvious. Our guide on when to buy disability insurance covers the timing in more depth.

The right next step is a comparison across all five carriers with Amazon's group plan entered as existing coverage, so the benefit each carrier will issue, the class it assigns, and the discounted and undiscounted premiums sit side by side. Start with a tech quote comparison, or read the broader picture in our overview of disability insurance for technology professionals. Seaworthy is an independent brokerage compensated by carrier commission, and there is no fee to compare.

Frequently asked questions

Does Amazon provide disability insurance to employees?
Yes. Amazon's published benefits overview for US employees lists company-paid short-term disability, with a 7-day waiting period and benefits paid for up to 26 weeks at 60% of eligible salary up to certain limits, and company-paid long-term disability, with a 180-day waiting period and benefits at 60% of eligible salary up to certain limits, subject to a pre-existing condition exclusion. Both are available to employees scheduled 30 or more hours a week. Third-party summaries of the plan identify The Hartford as the long-term disability insurer and put the monthly cap at $25,000. Plan terms change, so the plan documents Amazon provides govern.
Is Amazon's long-term disability plan enough on its own?
For a corporate or technical employee whose earnings approach the cap, it is a strong base layer that still leaves a gap. The benefit is taxable when the employer pays the premium, so a 60% pre-tax benefit replaces a smaller share of take-home pay. The $25,000 monthly cap binds once predisability earnings pass roughly $500,000 a year. Third-party summaries describe the earnings figure as a twelve-month lookback, which on Amazon's back-loaded vesting schedule can capture a small vest year or a large one depending on when a disability begins. The own-occupation test is reported to run 24 months before switching to an any-occupation standard, and the plan ends when employment ends. An individual policy addresses each of those directly.
Do RSUs count toward Amazon's long-term disability benefit?
According to third-party summaries of the plan, yes. Amazon's long-term disability plan is described as counting RSUs paid in the twelve months before the last day actively at work, along with sign-on bonuses and incentive pay, which is more generous than the base-salary-only design common in employer plans. The measurement window is what limits it. Amazon's new-hire grants are widely described as vesting 5% in year one, 15% in year two, and 40% in each of years three and four, so the trailing-twelve-month figure can look very different in year two than in year three. Individual carriers come at RSUs from the other direction, generally crediting vested RSUs reported as W-2 wages once a documented, recurring pattern exists.
Can Amazon employees get a discount on individual disability insurance?
As of 2026, Amazon employees can qualify for a multi-life discount of around 20 percent at one of the five major carriers Seaworthy places. It applies to a fully underwritten, individually owned, portable policy, so the contract quality is the same as coverage bought alone. The program is not exclusive to any brokerage, availability and the exact rate can vary by state, and the arrangement is not sponsored or endorsed by Amazon. Because the discount is carrier-specific, the right comparison still runs all five carriers and weighs the discounted premium against own-occupation language, mental health provisions, and the benefit each carrier will issue.
Does an individual policy pay on top of Amazon's group plan?
Yes. An individual own-occupation policy is indemnity coverage, meaning it pays its stated monthly benefit regardless of what the group plan pays, and it does not offset against Social Security the way a group plan commonly does. The coordination happens once, at underwriting, when the carrier counts existing group coverage in deciding how much individual benefit it will issue. The result is a layered structure in which the individual policy fills the gap above and beyond the group plan rather than duplicating it.
What happens to my Amazon disability coverage if I am laid off or leave?
Group long-term disability is tied to employment and is not portable, so it ends when employment ends, and a claim generally has to begin while you are still covered. An individual policy is a contract between you and the carrier. It continues through job changes, layoffs, and a move to a startup or a competitor, as long as premiums are paid, and the rate and health class it carries are the ones you qualified for on the day you applied.