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Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

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

#501

Post by intopieces »

pkulak wrote: post #286
L_Rahman wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the topic in question is how one of the most powerful companies on Earth chooses to use its power we should strive to always be this cynical. Skepticism of concentrated power is the ur-American political belief. We seem to have forgotten that lately.

If you're willing to shame a company for behavior you don't like, I think you should be prepared to give praise when they do exactly what you just asked for. When you constantly move the goal posts just so that you never have to abandon your righteous anger for even one day, what kind of incentive does that give companies to change their behavior?

Corporations do not deserve praise for doing the right thing. They are not people, with feelings, who respond to emotional stimuli in the form of positive reinforcement. They are businesses that respond to the market (indeed, their legal duty is to maximize profits). In markets, negative pressure works. Asking nicely does not.

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

#502

Post by irrational »

wstuartcl wrote: post #479
pkulak wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're willing to shame a company for behavior you don't like, I think you should be prepared to give praise when they do exactly what you just asked for. When you constantly move the goal posts just so that you never have to abandon your righteous anger for even one day, what kind of incentive does that give companies to change their behavior?

... FFS -- it was shaming of amazon's pay rate for their employees that caused the change in behavior in the first place. I think it is rational to look at what and why actions were taken. Do you believe that the raise of the minimum wage at Amazon was out of good nature? Was it a decision to mitigate brand perception costs against labor costs after a bunch of national stories reported that they were paying so little…

>Do you believe that the raise of the minimum wage at Amazon was out of good nature?

Does it matter what the rationale was? I know if I was an Amazon minimum wage employee I could care less what the rationale was. I'd just be thrilled to be getting a pay raise. Where I live the minimum wage is only $11.25/hour. Getting a bump to $15 will be a big deal for those people.

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

#503

Post by bpchaps »

irishcoffee wrote: post #362
prolikewh0a wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're out of touch with the job market and reality itself. It's not easy for these people to just "get a new job". They get paid minimum wage and are probably living paycheck to paycheck. If these people just "move jobs", they're out a paycheck for weeks and may lose their car, their home, not be able to eat, etc.

> If these people just "move jobs", they're out a paycheck for weeks and may lose their car, their home, not be able to eat, etc. This gets floated around a lot. At least in the US I can't imagine a scenario where not paying bills for 1 or 2 months results in homelessness and a repo'd car. Being both a homeowner and a landlord, I could not pay my mortgage for a year before legal processes kick in, and if my tenants d…

Er.. your imagination must be weak if you can't imagine that. Every state has different landlord laws with different thresholds....

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

#504

Post by bordercases »

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…

Timely since Bezos is going to run for President.

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

#505

Post by emodendroket »

johnchristopher wrote: post #205
emodendroket wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

> because it was hard to unionize a workplace where people didn't stick around for a whole year on average. That's why you want inter-professional union.

How would that end up working? I think few people think of themselves as "call center professionals" because they end up in some other job, but maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion.

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

#506

Post by Reedx »

jacquesm wrote: post #167
Shivetya wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$15 an hour will push a lot of people out of being employable. There is a greater tolerance for whom you will accept at current wage points. The other effect of a much higher starting wage is you will have people enter the market who did not think the wage was worth their time. The people who cannot be relied on to show up on schedule, quit and want to come back, have some issues in their credit or criminal backgroun…

> $15 an hour will push a lot of people out of being employable. Or maybe it will just force employers to pay better wages to those they employ already. $7.50 / hour is what they pay kids here to stock grocery chains.

Or maybe they won't employ humans at all because robots will be able to stock the shelves and flip burgers for Also some jobs will just go away, like grocery baggers (mostly) did. Which customers liked and was a good entry level job for teenagers.

There are a lot of factors to consider and have to be careful about unintended consequences.

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

#507

Post by emodendroket »

askmike wrote: post #471
emodendroket wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I refuse to believe Bezos woke up this morning with a new moral sense to change the ship around. No, of course not, but it's a victory that the pressure on them was enough they felt they had to make a concession.

True. So the people who have been saying things should be lauded, not Amazon.

Sure. Ultimately I think the question of whether Bezos is good or bad is almost beside the point.

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

#508

Post by wpdev_63 »

ptbello wrote: post #191

Call me cynical, but it could also be that AMZN will be automating all those lower paid jobs - as in: soon they won't even need 7.25$/H employees because they'll have machines. In this scenario, 15$/H would just be their current price point for the following tier of bottom of the chain not-yet-automated tasks.

Maybe they'll try to automate some more jobs but I feel like they already automated almost everything they can. Just look at their service centers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-lBvI6u_hw They're going automate all the jobs they can regardless of wage so might as well pay a decent wage for the few workers left.

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

#510

Post by VLM »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #486
VLM wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"no healthcare" How does that work, exactly? To produce this post I googled up the actual data for the state I live in, civilized area far from the coasts (near Chicago but not too close thankfully). Hopefully this isn't too docs droppy but where I live any single adult making $1011.67 or less per month, or any pregnant woman or any under 18 year homeless kid making $3035.01 or less per month qualifies for the totall…

Medicaid is often limited in its scope and there have been times when I'm on it, it wouldn't cover diagnostic testing for more serious disorders. Also, there was the knowledge that trying to take advantage of medicaid requires experience and time and education, none of which is often afforded to the poor.

Well, OK... but depressingly its still better scope and coverage than my current corporate plan which is also very expensive. So I get more coverage at lower cost from medicaid... Its insurance season (october) and its going to be hard to pay more to get less given the info I've found about medicaid.

For example taking your diagnostic testing example, I can pay cash on the barrel for an awful lot of testing before I reach my corporate deductible and copay levels which are also cash on the barrel just different form of accounting swindling.

Culturally "I'm gonna go medicaid" is very much like cord cutting, right now very few people are doing it, but in a couple years I think its going to be the majority.

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