Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Amazon Announces $15 Minimum Wage for All of its U.S. Employees

posted by martyb on Wednesday October 03 2018, @06:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the so-EVERY-Amazon-employee-gets-a-raise? dept.

takyon writes:

Amazon announces $15 minimum wage for all US employees

Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees. The change takes effect November 1 and applies to full-time, part-time and temporary workers. Amazon says the $15 minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees, plus 100,000 seasonal workers.

"We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO. "We're excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us."

The change applies to Whole Foods and all other subsidiary employees.

Amazon also said its public policy team will begin lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

See also: Bernie Sanders praises Jeff Bezos on Amazon $15 minimum wage

Previously: 'Stop BEZOS' Bill to tax Amazon for Underpaying Workers

Related: Injured Amazon Worker Describes High-Tech Dystopia Inside Texas Warehouse

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Amazon Announces $15 Minimum Wage for All of its U.S. Employees | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 39 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03 2018, @11:51AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03 2018, @11:51AM (#743341)

    You give a few reasons why it's a good idea for a business to raise it's base pay: They get first pick of the good employees, surrounding businesses have to keep up and if they can't the first company can take over their market share.
    Yes, the higher paying employees may notice that their wage is now relatively lower. But when you start thinking like that you can only get depressed more and more. Do you feel like you get enough compensation for your work? If that answer is yes, than why do you care about someone else's wage?

    Also commerce is the last place where you want to get equal value in an exchange. Many companies hire specific employees to try to disrupt that balance in their favor. If you can sell your stuff for much more than "equal" price, you're making significantly more money. Prices are set so to get maximum profit, not for some "equal value" ideology.

    I agree that business may want to keep ideology out of it, but employees and certainly customers don't.

    One more note: thanks for your generosity and time towards soylentnews, much appreciated.