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

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

#321

Post by mc32 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:56 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #218

swebs wrote: post #17

>In addition, the company also pledges its public policy team will lobby for an increase to the federal minimum wage from $7.25 — it doesn’t identify a specific wage that it’s targeting, but instead says, “We believe $7.25 is too low. We would look to Congress to decide the parameters of a new, higher federal minimum wage.” I'm going to take a wild guess and assume it will be $15/hour. That way they'll get to look pr…

Wow, does the top comment always have to be cynical? This is exactly what everyone wanted Amazon to do. Maybe it's time to suck it up and give praise where praise is due? There are also benefits to paying more salary than your competitors (no hiring shortages, best employees, low turnover, etc), so I'm not going to blindly accept that it's now in Amazon's interest to drag the rest of the industry along with them. But…

You can both be right. It’s great that they made this move after much criticism, prodding and foot dragging, but... this reaction can also be calculated so that not only they have to carry this load alone but spread it to competitors. In other words AMZN is willing to do it, but they don’t want to be the only ones “burdened” unlike Costco who did it out of concern and perhaps principle (and competitive advantage by ensuring a more stable workforce) but less as part of manoeuvering.

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

#322

Post by meko » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #251

throwaway080383 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all relative. If minimum wage workers get their income doubled, but my income does not double, then they are doing better relative to me than they were before. And I do not expect my salary to double upon passing of such legislation.

Are you saying your salary is based on keeping the working poor? OR are you saying you think corporations and their investors deserve a low wage workforce that the government will take care of with your tax dollars? I find no logical sense other then your mad that people can make money for WORKING. When people make $15 an hour they will need less government assistance. This will take away from corporate's profits, wh…

On hn you should always assume comments are in good faith and try to understand them from the best possible interpretation.

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

#323

Post by arrty88 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

>“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the announcement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

Ha ha. This shouldn't have taken much thinking Jeff. It's a no brainer, no? The more you pay your people, the more they can spend on your stuff.

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

#324

Post by GrumpiNerd » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #209

maaark wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the individual is worth more than many nation states, I have no problem with singling them out.

even if that person is the richest man in the world, a US senator singling out a private citizen in formal legislation is still "punching down". you really shouldn't cheer for that.

That's always been Bernie's style. He finds a target for hate, and gets votes by stirring up the hate.

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

#325

Post by resters » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #218

swebs wrote: post #17

>In addition, the company also pledges its public policy team will lobby for an increase to the federal minimum wage from $7.25 — it doesn’t identify a specific wage that it’s targeting, but instead says, “We believe $7.25 is too low. We would look to Congress to decide the parameters of a new, higher federal minimum wage.” I'm going to take a wild guess and assume it will be $15/hour. That way they'll get to look pr…

Wow, does the top comment always have to be cynical? This is exactly what everyone wanted Amazon to do. Maybe it's time to suck it up and give praise where praise is due? There are also benefits to paying more salary than your competitors (no hiring shortages, best employees, low turnover, etc), so I'm not going to blindly accept that it's now in Amazon's interest to drag the rest of the industry along with them. But…

I think you are assuming there is a conflict between Amazon's business interest and the interest of employees. Higher compensation is not done out of generosity, nor should it be. If it were it would be charity.

Higher compensation is done out of the desire to attract and retain better workers.

If Amazon started paying unemployed people or giving them gift cards to buy things on Amazon, then it would be charity.

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

#326

Post by simula67 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:58 PM UTC

wlll wrote: post #291

dantheman wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is disastrous for low skilled workers. It removes the bottom rung of the economic ladder -- if you have no skills or little skills, the best way to develop skills is to be employed. If you don't provide more than 15$ per hour of value then you won't be able to get a job. This also helps create a moat around amazon - if they can get the costs of everyone to go up, when they unleash better picking/warehouse automa…

I don't think that's how employment pools work. Sure, there's an element of "this job is only worth $7.5/hour, so if we have to pay someone $15/hour we won't do it", but I'd suggest that those jobs are actually not that common. I'd instead suggest that most jobs need doing, and they will just cost more. Ditches still need digging, burgers still need flipping, and it will just cost a bit more now.

You don't need to speculate. There is a research that shows it does hurt lower skill workers : http://www.nber.org/papers/w12663.pdf

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

#327

Post by genericone » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 2:59 PM UTC

I suppose there has been some 'breakthrough' in their warehouse automation stack? I suppose in the rest of the USA a doubling of wages will definitely get them through an awkward longshoreman period, "well I'm being paid more unexpectedly, I suppose I can't complain about the robots". Once the robots are well established in operations, they can start to cut labor back some more.

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

#328

Post by meko » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 3:00 PM UTC

MereInterest wrote: post #242

throwaway080383 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all relative. If minimum wage workers get their income doubled, but my income does not double, then they are doing better relative to me than they were before. And I do not expect my salary to double upon passing of such legislation.

That's a ridiculously cynical way to view it. First, utility does not scale linearly with income. Second, this allows for greater economic efficiency, because fewer people will be caught in bad situations with an insurmountable hurdle to get out. If you want to maintain your relative wealth, feudal times are great. The rest of us would rather increase absolute wealth.

All the previous poster is saying is that a minimum wage increase would not place that much upwards pressure on inflation, which is true.

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

#329

Post by fendy3002 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #277

wjnc wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well in this respect: Amazon chooses to link the two discussions themselves. They could have easily made their communication less open to an easy attack by pledging $15 an hour while lobbying silently, or at least communicating that on another moment. They could have noble intentions with both moves. I'd even expect them to have noble intentions since $15 seems an unreasonable large increase from $7.25. Why link to t…

Wait, why is it bad that Amazon is lobbying for this? Would you say it was bad if, say, ACLU was lobbying for a $15 minimum wage? My guess is that from Amazon's point of view, they are winning political points by not just raising their own minimum wage to $15, they are also using their standing in the industry to increase quality of life for non-Amazon minimum wage workers. If they succeed, I am happy to grant them t…

My guess is because how big advantage amazon has compared to smaller companies. They have good tax cut. Taking that aside, they also applied tight working time and high kpi, which can't be applied by smaller companies. And it gets better with PR stunt like this.

And CMIIW, I think increased minimum wage will increase goods price and higher skilled worker's wage overall, making those changes useless again.

It's just my 2 cents, with source limited from following recent news.

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

#330

Post by cs702 » Tue, Oct 02, 2018, 3:02 PM UTC

Enlighted capitalism:

The more money the masses earn, the more they will spend on products and services, from movie tickets to electronic devices to new automobiles.

The more all of us earn from each other, the more we spend with each other.

The more all of us spend with each other, the more we earn from each other.

Globally, AGGREGATE SPENDING = AGGREGATE INCOME.