Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#101

Post by ashelmire » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:26 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #55

tyingq wrote: post #7

Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, recently introduced legislation to end what he calls “corporate welfare” — and it’s pretty clear who he had in mind, since the bill was titled Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS). Bernie out-marketing AMZN is pretty funny.

Maybe I've got no sense of humour, but I think that's unprofessional and something like bullying, rather than funny. Legislation should surely not target one individual by name like that?

I think turning your employees into welfare-dependent wage-slaves is far worse than unprofessional or bullying, but I guess that's just me and most decent people.

CEOs of large public companies have to take public heat, by name, quite often. It's a huge part of their job; otherwise they'd be COOs.

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#102

Post by kome » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:27 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #55

tyingq wrote: post #7

Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, recently introduced legislation to end what he calls “corporate welfare” — and it’s pretty clear who he had in mind, since the bill was titled Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS). Bernie out-marketing AMZN is pretty funny.

Maybe I've got no sense of humour, but I think that's unprofessional and something like bullying, rather than funny. Legislation should surely not target one individual by name like that?

I would be more concerned about fellow humans not having a living wage instead of "unprofessionalism"...

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#103

Post by agotterer » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:28 PM UTC

Have there been any studies around the length of time increasing wages is actually beneficial for? I assume we’ve been here before and companies eventually increase prices or inflation kicks?

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#104

Post by kamarg » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:28 PM UTC

MichaelApproved wrote: post #25

itgoon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with their assertion that hourly employees "prefer the predictability and immediacy of cash to RSUs." $15/hr still isn't much. $30K year. Sure, it would be nice to get a fat payday down the road. People living on low wages have much more immediate needs. Why wait for a (maybe) payout, if you can't feed your kids today?

$15/hour isn't much but it's fantastic for entry level pay. That's the minimum. Most people will be getting paid more. And, yes, of course money today is better than maybe money tomorrow. For example, higher pay today could allow someone replace a car that keeps breaking down on them. That reliability and cost savings of not having to pay for repairs can be worth more than stocks in the future. Edit typo

Honest question, do those raises amount to anything? Or is it akin to the $0.25/hr that many retail employees see that doesn't even provide them with the equivalent of an additional paycheck over the course of a year?

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#105

Post by eksemplar » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:28 PM UTC

Doesn’t amazon operate as a middle man for a lot of independent service workers, like Uber does for drivers? How does the $15 apply to them?

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#106

Post by tw1010 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:29 PM UTC

FactolSarin wrote: post #74

tw1010 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize it's probably not actually Bernie who came up with the name? (It's one of his underlings.)

First, you mean one of his staff. Mad scientists have underlings. Second, you have literally no idea how much input he had into it. He may have come up with the name himself, or he may have directed his staff to come up with something pithy that spells out "Bezos" or he may have sat around with them spitballing ideas until they came up with something good. But in the end, he was the senator who introduced it, and he…

He deserves credit for choosing his staff well, I totally give him that.

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#107

Post by throwaway2048 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:29 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #55

tyingq wrote: post #7

Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, recently introduced legislation to end what he calls “corporate welfare” — and it’s pretty clear who he had in mind, since the bill was titled Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS). Bernie out-marketing AMZN is pretty funny.

Maybe I've got no sense of humour, but I think that's unprofessional and something like bullying, rather than funny. Legislation should surely not target one individual by name like that?

I think the richest man in the world can handle it.

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#108

Post by ionised » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:29 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #72

Egidius wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pay your employees $7.25 you deserve to be made fun off at least. Jeff Bezos recently also said Amazon deserved being scrutinised. I'm not saying this is what triggered them, but sometimes you have to take a strong position in order to be listened to.

> you deserve to be made fun of I don't think anyone deserves to be made fun of, full stop. Grown-up criticism is fine.

Not a fan of satire and parody then?

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#109

Post by WisNorCan » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:30 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #96

WisNorCan wrote: post #43

With almost a million employees the decisions by Amazon are impacting a large part of the (150 million) US workforce. The dysfunction in our government is rising at a time that corporations are growing bigger than ever. The obvious result is that companies like Amazon will have an outsized effect on the major issues for our society, like minimum wage and healthcare.

Nothing has actually changed about the scale of corporations. That's just a popular talking point (it's actually always a popular talking point). US GDP in 2000: $10 trillion US GDP in 2018: $20 trillion Largest market caps in 2000: Microsoft & Cisco, about half a trillion dollars. Double that to match the doubled GDP, and you get an Amazon today. Amazon is not more powerful than these companies at their peaks: GM, F…

Picking Microsoft and Cisco’s stock price during the dotcom bubble to use as valuation benchmarks seems disingenuous.

Picking anywhere outside the bubble makes the original point of rise of corporations clear.

Re: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

#110

Post by beaconstudios » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 1:30 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #86

beaconstudios wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's the whole point of the job market. The dysfunction displayed by Amazon is evidence of a supply/demand imbalance in the job market for warehousing roles, because if people have an option to move to another company that does not treat them badly they generally will do. As it stands I'm guessing the ratio of Amazon applicants to positions is way too high meaning they can afford a high turnover rate and focus sole…

I worked in a call center and I used to always wonder why they'd accept such extreme turnover, given that there were a few weeks of training before they could put you on (the fact that there was a course in touch-typing as part of that training probably gives you an idea where the bar was for hiring). But I'd read some analysis that suggested that in some ways the employers running these systems found that desirable,…

it makes sense, because unionisation will decrease the company's competitiveness, leading to their clients shifting to another (non-unionised) call centre and everyone getting fired. Thus companies in sectors like this end up trying to squeeze every drop out of their employees before they quit, because they are expendable.