Amazon announces $15 minimum wage for all US employees

Amazon says it is increasing its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees effective November 1.
The change 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.

Critics, including independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have criticized the company for not paying workers enough.

"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."

Amazon announces $15 minimum wage for all US employees

I was just criticizing Amazon for paying its workers so little while Jeff Bezos sits on billions of dollars. I never expected Amazon to lead the pack when it came to providing a living wage for its employees! I think it is great that the company decided to do this on its own, if there was some way to get other companies to do the same thing without government regulation, it would be amazing.

According to the National Employment Law Project, 42.4 percent of American workers currently make less than $15 an hour. There are around 1.4 million janitors and cleaners who earn below that mark, 1.2 million drivers, 1 million secretaries and administrative assistants, and 699,000 child care workers

Slate

The problem is that wages have not kept up with the cost of living for the past few decades. Almost half of the population earns less than $15 an hour, and many of these are full-time workers with families.

There is little incentive for companies to increase employee wages because of the fact that the top brass answer to their stockholders, who want to increase revenue. I think that a business should look at how it impacts the world, and provide a quality experience for their customers and workers, as well as a quality product, in addition to making a profit.

Another way to look at it is that providing quality jobs with stable hours, decent pay, benefits and the like will attract workers who will be more willing to stick with the company and put in their best effort.

a reply to: darkbake

Good on them.

There are guys in the foundry 50 feet away from me making much less.
Better tell them about Amazon

Well done amazon....that is shocking, but I think it can be done by most big companies without hurting profit. I mean, snap, if we keep going, Amazon won't have anyone to sell their cheap Chinese plastic garbage to.

ETA for those sens-a-tive peeps.

originally posted by: lakenheath24
Well done amazon....that is shocking, but I think it can be done by most big companies without hurting profit. I mean, snap, if we keep going, Amazon won't have anyone to sell their cheap Chinese plastic garbage to.

That all they sell?
I just ordered 12 books, 1 of them a first edition.

a reply to: [post=23824968]TinySickTears[/p

Damn, do I really need to put the sarcasm icon after every post????

I'm extremely impressed by this. I've never bought anything on Amazon but this almost makes me want to. Bravo Amazon!

originally posted by: lakenheath24
a reply to: [post=23824968]TinySickTears[/p

Damn, do I really need to put the sarcasm icon after every post????

Yeah.
It would help

a reply to: TinySickTears

If more jobs become available that provide a living wage, it could help lift people (even full-time, working adults) off of public safety nets like food stamps and the like. It is a great solution.

a reply to: darkbake

Not to mention all those payroll taxes hitting the system....offsetting those tariffs bigly if others follow.

Across the board policies like this is PR.

15 in some markets will be amazing, and in other, it’s still a crap amount.

If they really cared they will use one of their big brain people to come with a formula to make a wage that works in each market and not an arbatrary number

So they have 350,000 people working for them making less than 15 an hour?

# people if theres anything wrong with the economy its that

No wonder residental construction is in the #ter

originally posted by: toysforadults
So they have 350,000 people working for them making less than 15 an hour?

# people if theres anything wrong with the economy its that

No wonder residental construction is in the #ter

The 350,000 employees who got a raise beg to differ.

Sorry! I meant to quote Socrates.

Then some woman will sue because their pay isnt equal.

a reply to: SocratesJohnson

Well now, looks like those Corporate tax cuts have really helped ...

Overall, the new tax law largely works in Amazon’s favor, driving down the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. While that will only apply to Amazon’s 2018 income, its impact can be felt today. Deferred taxes mostly apply to capital investments, or such things as equipment and new warehouses. Taxes on these items are deferred throughout the lifetime of the investment. So even if the tax rate was 35 percent at the time the investment was made, when the company actually pays these deferred taxes, the new 21 percent rate will apply. This line item shrank Amazon’s estimated future taxes by $789 million.

Good on Amazon for transferring their new tax savings to workers wages.

This sounds just peachy but what was amazons minimum wage before?
Did they really have anybody at the federal minimum?

The large companies like Amazon can absorb the increase easily, the small grocery stores and what not will suffer.

All the more incentive for mega-corporations to replace their human workers with A.I. ASAP.

originally posted by: UKTruth
Well now, looks like those Corporate tax cuts have really helped ...

Overall, the new tax law largely works in Amazon’s favor, driving down the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. While that will only apply to Amazon’s 2018 income, its impact can be felt today. Deferred taxes mostly apply to capital investments, or such things as equipment and new warehouses. Taxes on these items are deferred throughout the lifetime of the investment. So even if the tax rate was 35 percent at the time the investment was made, when the company actually pays these deferred taxes, the new 21 percent rate will apply. This line item shrank Amazon’s estimated future taxes by $789 million.

Good on Amazon for transferring their new tax savings to workers wages.

Yeah, but according to Leftists, trickle-down doesn't work, so it can't be because of tax cuts.

It has to be because Amazon has seen the light. Bezos will probably give ALL of his billions to help the poor and downtrodden Real Soon Now.

I bet it will be the lead in the NYT tomorrow.

Jeff is so rich he makes something like 3,000$ a second. Which is great, trickle down in effect or no?

a reply to: darkbake

a reply to: darkbake

Good, my Amazon stock has been slumping lately. If you dont have any Amazon stock buy this morning, like right now, sell in two days, Thursday morning. You will make some money.

I already have enough of their stock so I'm just gonna sell most if not all of it Thursday. Im getting tired of looking at it in my portfolio.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
I'm extremely impressed by this. I've never bought anything on Amazon but this almost makes me want to. Bravo Amazon!

I buy a LOT of crap off of Amazon. I still shop around but Amazon usually ends up being less expensive for the same exact product.