CORPORATE : ''LION SHARE LOUD'' : 2/3

IF Amazon's 575,000 total employees owned the same proportion of their employer's stock as the  Sears workers did in the 1950s, they would each own shares worth $381,000.

Until a few months ago, Amazon had been awarding two shares a year to warehouse employees, worth about $3,500 at the current price.

The loss of those grants with prevent employees from directly partaking in one of the greatest examples of wealth creation.

To make for the lost stock-grants, Amazon has provided raises for at least $1.25 an hour to employees who had been earning over $15, plus cash bonuses at five, 10, 15, and 20 years of employment.

Employees can put retirement fund contributions into Amazon shares.

Several employees interviewed, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, expressed disappointment.

 Amazon should have saved the dollar and kept giving workers stock, said one warehouse employee in Baltimore.

Amazon insisted workers were not losing out.

''The significant increase in in hourly cash wages effective Nov. 1 more than compensates for the  phaseout of incentive pay and future stock grants,'' said a company spokeswoman, Ashley Robinson.

But that approach could make workers feel less connected to Amazon's success, said Jeffrey D. Shulman, a professor of marketing at the University of Washington.

''Going forward, it almost becomes a zero-sum game,'' he said. ''Now when the company makes a decision, Amazon either puts the money into the pockets of shareholders or employees.''

The calculus was different at Sears, said Dan Fapp, a former communication executive who worked there from 1963 to 1999. ''If the company did well and the stock went up, your account was worth more,'' he said.

''It was not unusual for people to have $250,000 to $350,000 when they retired in the 1960s and early 1970s,'' Mr. Fapp said

That's worth well over $1 million today after adjusting for inflation.

The honor and serving of the latest global operational research on ''How Workers Partake in Corporate Success'', continues.