Amazon (Supposedly) to Pay Workers Higher Wages

The “Fight for 15” has been an ongoing battle in the US, with advocates for a fair, living wage working tirelessly for a nearly 100% increase in the current non-server minimum wage (due to the expectation of tips, restaurants only have to pay wait staff a little more than $2 per hour). Some key political voices have also come on board, namely advocates like Senator Bernie Sanders.

Now, after many discussions and pleas from both lawmakers and employees, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced this week that his company would raise the minimum wage for its employees to $15 per hour for both full and seasonal employees. In the same announcement in which he admits that it was due to pressure from advocates for the company to do the right thing, Bezos also stated he is proud to lead the way but expects other major-name companies to follow suit.

But did he really raise the minimum wage?

On the surface, this is incredible. Underlying that, though, is the possibility that Bezos was acting one step ahead of legislation that is literally entitled the Stop BEZOS Act. This bill, introduced by Sanders and others, would strip away lucrative tax loopholes for corporations whose employees qualify for welfare assistance.

You read that right: in the US it is entirely possible to work full-time for a highly-profitable company (in this case, one owned by the world’s richest man) and still earn so little that you live below the federal poverty line. Another major offender is Walmart, whose employees routinely qualify for food stamps and whose own store managers have had canned food drives to ensure they have enough to eat at the holidays.

But following on the heels of Bezos’ back-patting announcement was the news that paying for this wage increase means stripping away some perks like monthly bonuses and stock awards. The money isn’t exactly coming out of the executives’ profit margins, although it could mean that more employees have sustainable guaranteed income rather than the hope of a bonus from month to month. That does lead to better ability to budget and save money, and it will be distributed evenly across the workforce rather than going to only a percentage of employees.

Mercy Pilkington

Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.

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Heidi Steindel
I think $15 is a little high for that kind of work. The starting pay at my job is less than that and my company requires college education lol
kfg
TNSTAAFL, even if you are laboring under the misapprehension that you earned it.
Debt isn’t free money. It’s an economic de-evolution to even deeper poverty, no matter how shiny you make the box it comes in.
sancho 42
The question isn’t if 15 dollars is a little high or not, but what is the amount that will provide a sustainable living. The absurd, at least to me, is that companies like Amazon and wall Mart can profit billions of dollars, and their workers will still be poor, and depend on welfare
kfg
” . . . depend on welfare”
Which is paid for by . . . Workers! And around we go.
As an aside, the last time I crunched the numbers, which was a few years ago, before they had really become the behemeth they are now, Amazon had yet to make their first dime in profit. Annual profits were still being applied to trying to get out of the red.
If I start up a company next year with $10 million in capital investment, and the year after turn a million in profit, I’m still 9 in the hole, not a millionaire.
Nired Wuglar
Perhaps you should get paid higher? Consider that many retail CEOs get paid (in equivalent) more than nine thousand dollars an hour. I’m not talking Bezos here, some calculated that to be 10 million an hour if you calculate by increase in net worth, a sensational calculation obviously but you get the point. There is a reason why bosses don’t like real non scab unions around. So point up to those who are taking the whole pie rather than fighting over the forkfuls we get to slave away for.