I don't know why people say Amazon has a bad reputation as an employee. You have to consider there is a million employees and it most likely depends on department, location, job. I personally know a couple handful Amazon employees who are all most happy and treated well. Some of them have previously been at google and they say Amazon is the better employer period.

In some jurisdictions they pay clear above industry standard.

All companies have good and bad aspects, some feel better in a startup , some feel better in a corporate giant.