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Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees

cnbc.com

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

#751

Post by mcrider »

joezydeco wrote: post #705
chiefalchemist wrote: post #665

This is: - 25% PR - 25% free advertising for their openings (i.e., Amazon pays well) - 25% necessity (we're at full-employment) - and 25% ROI (they've figured less turnover and better quality employees are worth the investment) The question is: how will this effect other companies in the markets where Amazon employs a measurable number of people.

And 100% "Get out of Bernie Sanders' crosshairs before he regulates us to do this"

I thought it was funny that Bezos, who isn't a super frequent tweeter, responded to Bernie Sanders' congratulations to him on the same day that this was announced.

[1] https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/1047152109508997121

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

#752

Post by WalterBright »

smilbandit wrote: post #618
rubidium wrote: post #491

There's been similar moves in the past. Most famous of which is Ford's $5 / day. http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/01/03/blogs/post-per... Ford's quote from the time is relevant today: “The owner, the employees, and the buying public are all one and the same, and unless an industry can so manage itself as to keep wages high and prices low it destroys itself, for otherwise it limits the number of its customers.…

and thus grew the middle class. The middle class is something we truly need to focus on growing again.

America has always been a nation of middle class people, even back in colonial times. The exception was the southern slave economy, which didn't have much of a middle class.

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

#753

Post by phlowbieuq »

B-Con wrote: post #730
propman wrote: post #687

Amazon says no more RSUs in exchange for $15 min wage, can anyone say how much the RSUs were for those employees? I’m curious as to what the difference is?

Where did you see that? I doubt hourly warehouse workers are getting RSUs to begin with, that tends to be for salaried positions only.

From a former Amazon employee's blog:

"New Amazon Tier One employees receive a small number of restricted stock units (RSUs) within the first month of hire. These shares are set to vest after two years of continuous service. For every year of continuous service, an employee receives another small number of shares of restricted stock, always vesting two years of service later. For example, I received four shares on 8/27/14 set to vest on 8/31/16. I received four more shares on 4/2/15 set to vest on 7/1/17. I received three shares on 4/7/16 set to vest on 6/16/18."

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

#754

Post by carlsborg »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #665

This is: - 25% PR - 25% free advertising for their openings (i.e., Amazon pays well) - 25% necessity (we're at full-employment) - and 25% ROI (they've figured less turnover and better quality employees are worth the investment) The question is: how will this effect other companies in the markets where Amazon employs a measurable number of people.

Well also because they are going to automate all those warehouse jobs anyway, and brick and mortar competitors cannot automate retail workers, and this will hurt them even more in the future.

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

#755

Post by thomasmeeks »

propman wrote: post #687

Amazon says no more RSUs in exchange for $15 min wage, can anyone say how much the RSUs were for those employees? I’m curious as to what the difference is?

Given RSU vesting schedules this is absolutely a better deal for hourly workers. Especially seasonal. I’d take the cash too.

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

#756

Post by walshemj »

jzymbaluk wrote: post #351
nebulous1 wrote: post #4

I mean, they get such bad press for the way they treat their workers it only seems fair to laud them for this. Good move. They have more to do though. I've went through a few articles on this but I didn't see any of them mention what Amazon's minimum actual pay was before this, just the federal minimum wage. Anybody know?

>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. From the CNBC article: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/amazon-raises-minimum-wage-t...

For information in the UK (Milton Keynes) for a Fulfilment Associate its.

• £8.20 per hour (days) to £10.16 per hour (nights). Rising to £10.50 per hour (days) to £12.46 per hour (nights) from November 1st 2018.

• Overtime rates between £12.30 per hour and £16.40 per hour. Rising to £15.75 per hour to £21.00 per hour from November 1st 2018.

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

#757

Post by skellera »

pathseeker wrote: post #740
slivym wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Who says Amazon doesn’t pay taxes? Can we do away with this now please. Amazon paying the taxes it can't avoid doesn't act as an excuse for avoiding the taxes that they do avoid. In fact, excusing Amazon's tax avoidance with the income tax it's employees pay is even worse. It's still a problem. We still need to tackle it, and if this pay rise acts to dissuade people from real tax reform and real workers rights then…

>Can we do away with this now please. Amazon paying the taxes it can't avoid doesn't act as an excuse for avoiding the taxes that they do avoid. Can we do away with the notion that companies shouldn't pay the amount of taxes required by the law? What should Bezos tell the accountants? Pay 15% above whatever the required amount is? 20%?

And you’re right. It’s a tax problem that needs to be solved, not a company dodging problem.

Either way, a mom and pop store is not going to get anywhere near the same tax rate. Amazon is not paying their share even if they aren’t to blame.

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

#758

Post by jyounker »

loceng wrote: post #376
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…

The problem is that minimum wage shouldn't be the end of the conversation. With an increase with minimum wage, rent and other costs will go up to match whatever pressure people will as near as sustainable without collapse as possible (indirect costs going up of course), along with other for-profit layers providing for basic necessities also increasing their prices.

People at the bottom of the wage scale getting a few bucks more an hour will not drive up costs. The additional demand is spread across categories of goods. You also assume that businesses are incapable of increasing production (or improving production efficiency) to handle moderate increases in demand.

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

#759

Post by walshemj »

mikepurvis wrote: post #612
Dylan16807 wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it doesn't make any sense. Amazon doesn't dominate the jobs market.

Depends how you look at it. The fulfillment centers are intentionally built out in the middle of nowhere where land and labour are both plentiful and inexpensive. If you live in such a place and Amazon is your employer, it may well be the case that you don't have a lot of other options, especially if what you came from was being on social assistance.

No they are built near transit hubs, out in the sticks wont have a motorway running nearby as does the one nearest me

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

#760

Post by psychometry »

joezydeco wrote: post #705
chiefalchemist wrote: post #665

This is: - 25% PR - 25% free advertising for their openings (i.e., Amazon pays well) - 25% necessity (we're at full-employment) - and 25% ROI (they've figured less turnover and better quality employees are worth the investment) The question is: how will this effect other companies in the markets where Amazon employs a measurable number of people.

And 100% "Get out of Bernie Sanders' crosshairs before he regulates us to do this"

No democrat is getting any substantive bill through Congress and signed into law until 2020. I don't think they're afraid of Bernie.
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