Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all employees.


Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees
Sara Salinas | @saracsalinas
Published 4 Hours Ago Updated 25 Mins AgoCNBC.com
  • Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos have been facing criticism for its pay disparity.
  • The new minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees — including part-time and temporary employees — and 100,000 seasonal employees.
  • Amazon says the effect of the higher pay will be reflected in its forward-looking quarterly guidance.
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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 marginally lower Tuesday morning.


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.

"Today I want to give credit where credit is due," Sanders said in response to the announcement. "What Mr. Bezos has done today is not only enormously important for Amazon's hundreds of thousands of employees, it could well be, and I think it will be, a shot heard around the world."

Amazon said it will also start advocating for an increase to the federal minimum wage.

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.

Amazon is 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.

"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.

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.

—CNBC's Tom Rotunno and Jeff Cox contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed.

WATCH: Jeff Bezos is so much bigger than Amazon — a look at his extraordinary empire






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Good. Most of the folks working in the fulfillment centers bust their asses trying to meet hourly quotas that range from “I can do this” to “no way in hell”. This will help them retain folks.


Yep.. they keep hring like crazy here in the Chi.. its a high demand n high turn over rate type if job, but 15 dollars for some with make it a better stay
 
The more money people make the more willing they are to do their job and stay..been the most obvious thing if you ever ran a business
 
$15/hr is good money depending on what part of the country you live in.

$15/hr is not going to do much living here in Las Vegas. So I know damn well areas in South Cali and the NYC Tri-State area it ain’t worth shit.

If you live in North Dakota or Wyoming, you could live decent on it.
 




He has been relentlessly attacking Amazon, threatening legislation.

Instead of taxing his company to pay for homeless which he blocked, he setup a non profit taking the money from him which makes more sense. Raising the minimum wage is part of his counter attack.
 
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$15/hr is good money depending on what part of the country you live in.

$15/hr is not going to do much living here in Las Vegas. So I know damn well areas in South Cali and the NYC Tri-State area it ain’t worth shit.

If you live in North Dakota or Wyoming, you could live decent on it.
I think minimum wage up there is even higher due to low population and recruiting tool
 
:lol: I see what he's doing there

Maybe the most important thing in the actual announcement is:

"Amazon’s public policy team will also begin advocating for an increase in the federal minimum wage."

Smart Amazon. Smart.

This is aimed at Wal-Mart. If the federal minimum wage was increased to $15/hr, it eats up as high as 40% of WallyWorld's profits. I'm pretty sure this ties in with Amazon wanting to enter the immensely larger brick and mortal retail market.
 
They lowered the rates they pay

To the drivers(private contractors) that

Deliver the packages to fund this.

Amazon didnt take it out of their own

Pockets, they just getting over on the

next person.
 
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