Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Amazon Raises Minimum Wage For All US Employees To $15

Amazon has raised the minimum wage for all of its U.S. employees--including full-time, part-time, temporary, and even seasonal help--to $15 an hour, effective November 1st, as the company responds to what had been increasing criticism of its labor practices. According to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, the company "listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead" in upping its minimum wage. Amazon also said it would begin advocating for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which is just $7.25 an hour. Pressure had been building on Amazon for improving wages paid to its employees, with the latest being a bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called the "Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies" (Stop BEZOS) which had been aimed at forcing Amazon and other companies to pay workers a living wage or pay for the public assistance programs like Medicaid, food stamps and public housing.