Current Events > Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/amazon-raises-minimum-wage-to-15-for-all-us-employees.html

Amazon announced Tuesday it's raising the minimum wage for all U.S. employees to $15, effective next month.

The new minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees including part-time and temporary employees as well as another 100,000 seasonal employees, the company said. Some employees who already make $15 per hour will also see a pay increase.

Amazon said the effect of the higher pay will be reflected in its forward-looking quarterly guidance. Shares of Amazon were trading a fraction of 1 percent lower before the market open.

The company and CEO Jeff Bezos have been facing criticism for its pay disparity. Sen. Bernie Sanders last month introduced legislation called the Bezos Act to tax corporations for every dollar that their low-wage workers receive in government health-care benefits or food stamps.

Amazon's starting pay varies by location $10 an hour at a warehouse in Austin, Texas, for example, and $13.50 an hour in Robbinsville, New Jersey. For 2017, the median Amazon employee earned just under $28,500, according to company filings. Bezos earned $1.7 million.

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

Retail rival Target announced in its holiday hiring release it would raise minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2020. Walmart announced plans in January to raise its minimum wage to $11.

Amazon said it will also start advocating for an increase to the federal minimum wage. It's also raising wages for British employees to a minimum of 10.50 ($13.61) for workers in London and 9.50 ($12.31) in the rest of the country.

The announcement comes ahead of Amazon's annual holiday hiring push. Last year the e-commerce giant said it would hire 120,000 temporary employees for the holiday season.

In August, national wage growth posted its biggest increase of the economic recovery, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Payroll gains beat expectations and the unemployment rate held near a generational low of 3.9 percent making holiday hiring tougher for many retailers.

Bezos...so EVIL!!!
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MAGA
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Inb4 REMercsChamp.

is $15 even livable in america?
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Is this why they stopped the 20% off game pre-orders discount for Prime users?
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that's cool when i was working for amazon i was pulling more than 15 lol, companies around them were still paying 11-12.
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Rika_Furude posted...

is $15 even livable in america?

Just about everywhere except major cities and most of California
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Means nothing if the cost of living is just going to continue going up and up.
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$15 an hour but still under complete scrutiny to reach quotas and numbers.

Using bathroom breaks against you and monitoring you at all times.

Completely worth 15 an hour for a shit tier company.
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$20 an hour for pushing boxes in a warehouse. Unbelievable.
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chrono625 posted...

$15 an hour but still under complete scrutiny to reach quotas and numbers.

Lots of companies have quotas and numbers. It's not just Amazon. It's not just unskilled labor either.
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Does Amazon have a Union?
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REMercsChamp posted...

chrono625 posted...

$15 an hour but still under complete scrutiny to reach quotas and numbers.

Lots of companies have quotas and numbers. It's not just Amazon. It's not just unskilled labor either.

Yep, even white collar workers can't escape KPI's this day and age.
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Bezos earned $1.7 million.

like in one hour of one day?
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Conflict posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

Bezos...so EVIL!!!

Saying this mockingly when you're fully aware of the shitty workplace conditions that Amazon employees have to deal with

Lots of warehouse and manual labor jobs have shitty working conditions people have to deal with. It's nowhere close to being exclusive to Amazon.
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"Oh well, time to quit my office job and go work unskilled for Amazon for $2 more an hour guess my entire degree was worthless."
~ No one, ever.
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Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate
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but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!
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Middle hope posted...

Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate

would you not be willing to pay a little extra so people could get a better wage?
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Kombucha posted...

Middle hope posted...

Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate

would you not be willing to pay a little extra so people could get a better wage?

People don't need to pay extra to justify the wage increase.
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Middle hope posted...

Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate

maybe, maybe not. they have to be sensitive to what people are willing to pay for prime.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Bezos is doing this because of legal pressure. Not because he's generous.
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Thanks trump
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Tyranthraxus posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Bezos is doing this because of legal pressure. Not because he's generous.

it's almost as if there is an ecomomic model that is all about pressure and competition and free enterprise and the people deciding what they want!
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Amazon is asking for minimum wage to be raised though. <_< Though really that would just be because then they can cause their competitors to pay higher wages as well so there's less impact from this decision and get good press.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Worked out real well for people pre 1920s
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uwnim posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Amazon is asking for minimum wage to be raised though. <_< Though really that would just be because then they can cause their competitors to pay higher wages as well so there's less impact from this decision and get good press.

youre not saying minomum wage is going to have unintended consequences, are you?!?!
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Kombucha posted...

Middle hope posted...

Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate

would you not be willing to pay a little extra so people could get a better wage?

No. At that point the price of the service outweighs its usefulness
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REMercsChamp posted...

$20 an hour for pushing boxes in a warehouse. Unbelievable.

It's about your productivity level. Anyone can push boxes. At that high a salary, they only want those who can move product at the highest levels.

Same deal as costco. Very high employee expectations, very high pay relative to peers.

Middle hope posted...

Kombucha posted...

Middle hope posted...

Watch them raise the price of prime by 20 bucks to compensate

would you not be willing to pay a little extra so people could get a better wage?

No. At that point the price of the service outweighs its usefulness

Disagree. Increasing quality employee retention means never missing prime shipping target dates. That matters. That's what most prime customers are paying for as is.
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Rika_Furude posted...

is $15 even livable in america?

Depends on the state, this is also the entry position.

uwnim posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Amazon is asking for minimum wage to be raised though. <_< Though really that would just be because then they can cause their competitors to pay higher wages as well so there's less impact from this decision and get good press.

Eh, I expect that's mostly grandstanding. They want the best workers, they know they work their people harder than their peers do. If min wage went to 15, they'd have to raise theirs higher or lose retention.
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Darkman124 posted...

move product at the highest levels.

Realistically how long can people do this before they burn out or break down physically?
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REMercsChamp posted...

Darkman124 posted...

move product at the highest levels.

Realistically how long can people do this before they burn out or break down physically?

A very good question! I don't know the answer to that. I don't know that Amazon cares about the answer to it, so long as when those workers leave the industry (entirely) they are replaced by others who are similarly capable and only wanting to work for them and not their peers.

Really, this is similar to how early-career law works. Young lawyers at top firms have high burnout rates. They take those jobs because they pay insanely well, and they're willing to suffer 18 hour workdays for the money. As they burn out, new ones replace them. Those that make it, make it.

I see similar effects in my own workplace, though not quite as extreme.
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Darkman124 posted...

It's about your productivity level. Anyone can push boxes. At that high a salary, they only want those who can move product at the highest levels.

Same deal as costco. Very high employee expectations, very high pay relative to peers.

yeah i learned recently that kroger (grocer chain) warehouse employees get 18 to start.

so i mean $20 as a baseline isn't too far off.
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Kombucha posted...

Darkman124 posted...

It's about your productivity level. Anyone can push boxes. At that high a salary, they only want those who can move product at the highest levels.

Same deal as costco. Very high employee expectations, very high pay relative to peers.

yeah i learned recently that kroger (grocer chain) warehouse employees get 18 to start.

so i mean $20 as a baseline isn't too far off.

Everyone is following the costco model because it fucking works.
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Darkman124 posted...

Disagree. Increasing quality employee retention means never missing prime shipping target dates. That matters. That's what most prime customers are paying for as is

Not me. He asked if I would pay more. Not if I think everyone should pay more. To me an extra 20 bucks a year is simply not worth it
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

uwnim posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

but i thought we need high corporate taxes and severe regulations in order to benefit workers

gee it's almost as if minimum wage laws can be entirely replaces by the free market!

Amazon is asking for minimum wage to be raised though. <_< Though really that would just be because then they can cause their competitors to pay higher wages as well so there's less impact from this decision and get good press.

youre not saying minomum wage is going to have unintended consequences, are you?!?!

No, like most things, what it does depends on how you do it. Something like making the federal minimum wage $15 would cause a lot of issues, while something like raising it to $8 wouldn't. Amazon would be asking for a higher minimum, because it is unlikely that there'd be something that would come close to what they've decided to pay, so attempting to get it raised would just make them look good. And if they are able to get it to something like say 9.50-10 it would possibly raise wages in some of their competitors.
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Flockaveli posted...

Means nothing if the cost of living is just going to continue going up and up.

This.
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Cool. Being one of the most profitable companies in the U.S, it's good to pass it on.
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Where the hell were they not paying $15 already?
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I mean, the wage increase is a bit of a stinger to millions of egos working entry level jobs for less money buttttt thinking about this further and how slimy Bezos is, this is more of a damage control tactic to get Bernie Sanders and Congress off his back.

How about better working conditions period, because that's always been the real issue at hand. $15 per worker is fucking nothing to Amazon.
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REMercsChamp posted...

$20 an hour for pushing boxes in a warehouse. Unbelievable.

Lol, this post recently coming from a person who made a topic whining about almost all of their paycheck being taken out for child support. A living wage would be pretty tight, dont you think? It means youd have to pay less for child support and have more of the money you earned.

People making a livable wage! Oh no!

lol people think bezos is doing this out of the goodness of his heart

billionaires don't have hearts
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Amazon is going to cause the next financial crisis. This is just going to cause inflation and the fed has no dry powder left to fight it.