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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

#931

Post by chapekaloco »

exotree wrote: post #871
chapekaloco wrote: post #869

I'm a front line warehouse associate that has been working in one of their facilities for over 3 years. There are parts to this puzzle that the media isn't focusing on and some insights I'd like to offer on their general pay philosophies. I'm not very smart but perhaps I at least have interesting perspective to offer. https://steemit.com/amazon/@chapekaloco/amazon-com-and-the-m... tl;dr, my overall compensation has d…

This is really good writing, and it is fascinating context. Do not sell yourself short. Thank you for your contribution to this thread.

Thank you. Wish I wasn't late to the HN party. Replies are buried unless you're early to the show. Oh well.

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

#932

Post by simonh »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #822
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.…

I suspect other companies will have to match Amazon's wages. Walmart's employees are looking at Amazon and wondering why they don't get the same wages. This will become the de facto minimum wage at least in retail. This is good news overall.

What Amazon is doing is building a moat to protect themselves from competition.

Amazon has achieved a scale where they have driven down their cost of business per product sold as low as they can. Only other companies operating at a similar scale can compete. By increasing the cost of doing business for smaller competitors that don't have their scale, they are dramatically increasing the cost of anyone else doing what they did to get where they are.

I'm sure Jeff feels good about this more. He can be rightly proud of it. He's managed to build a business successful enough that he can afford to do it. However don't lose sight of the fact this is also a shrewd and actually pretty aggressive business move.

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

#933

Post by chiefalchemist »

jniedrauer wrote: post #904
chiefalchemist wrote: post #882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, most 30 - 35 y/o and unders I know have Prime or live in a household with Prime. Mind you, not all in that demo are pro-Bernie but that target certainly skews that way. Bernie vs Amazon? I can't imagine Bernie having a chance. Prime will trump Bernie.

People can use a service and then vote to regulate that service, believe it or not.

Yes they can. Yes they do. None the less, Bernie will have to fight the fight of his life to beat Amazon. Demonizing "free shipping" is no easy task.

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

#934

Post by ionised »

ams6110 wrote: post #638
austenallred wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s due to the fact that any ounce of profit they would have they instead re-invest into the business. Which, by the way, is (part of) why they’re so dominant.

Agree, and in any other situation we'd be praising this. They're investing in the future, looking beyond the next quarter, etc.

Investing in the future is great.

Doing so while exploiting workers and dubious tax arrangements is not.

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

#935

Post by tomcam »

igravious wrote: post #826
skybrian wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't take that explanation at face value because it's describing a perpetual motion machine. Sales to your own employees are only going to be a trivial amount of revenue for any reasonable business. And I'm sure he knew that. But interpreted charitably, it's showmanship. This is a way to show leadership, get a lot of publicity, and hire better workers, so what's not to like?

No, yours is the uncharitable explanation. In reality it shows that Ford understood that all of us are in this together (“The owner, the employees, and the buying public are all one and the same”) – and we take it that Ford was not only referring to his own employees but to all employees. So if you want the public to be able to by your goods then we ought to recognise that the public must be able to afford those good…

> I honestly think that there's something deeply damaged at the heart of the American psyche.

Why is it the #1 destination country for immigrants?

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

#936

Post by csdreamer7 »

ars wrote: post #889
csdreamer7 wrote: post #220

Bezos felt the Burn! I would still support Bernie's bill. Walmart pays the least of any major retailer. The market power they push onto communities undermines much of the social fabric of America. Small retailers really can't compete with Walmart and a lot of small business owners would feel guilty asking their employees to go on welfare. Charging Walmart for employees who apply to welfare would likely lead to pay in…

> I would still support Bernie's bill. Wasn't that the bill the encouraged employers to only hire people without dependents, because more dependents = more benefits, which the bill does not adjust for at all? Why would anyone support that bill?

> Wasn't that the bill the encouraged employers to only hire people without dependents, because more dependents = more benefits, which the bill does not adjust for at all?

Employers already have incentive to not hire people with dependents. The media criticizes tech companies for having a young male workforce all the time for this. They feel hungry young men without social attachment will work harder and longer for them and keep their health care costs low.

If an employer feels incentive to discriminate in favor of those without dependents because of this law, they likely already were.

Also this bill only applied to large employers, those with severe market power over labor and markets that really can afford to pay more and are in the best position to exploit welfare benefits.

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

#937

Post by csdreamer7 »

Fellshard wrote: post #865
csdreamer7 wrote: post #220

Bezos felt the Burn! I would still support Bernie's bill. Walmart pays the least of any major retailer. The market power they push onto communities undermines much of the social fabric of America. Small retailers really can't compete with Walmart and a lot of small business owners would feel guilty asking their employees to go on welfare. Charging Walmart for employees who apply to welfare would likely lead to pay in…

Individual companies raising their minimum wage is perfectly reasonable. They know what their bottom line can handle, and any consequences are fairly limited to the company itself and its competitors, for good or ill. An entire national economy raising a minimum wage is pulling yourself into the air by tugging on your bootstraps - futile, and likely to make you keel over instead. There's no alternatives if it fails o…

I do not know why you are raising issue with increasing the national min wage.

This bill charges large employers for welfare who keep employees pay low enough to qualify for benefits and therefore receive an indirect subsidy.

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

#938

Post by krapp »

tomcam wrote: post #935
igravious wrote: post #826

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, yours is the uncharitable explanation. In reality it shows that Ford understood that all of us are in this together (“The owner, the employees, and the buying public are all one and the same”) – and we take it that Ford was not only referring to his own employees but to all employees. So if you want the public to be able to by your goods then we ought to recognise that the public must be able to afford those good…

> I honestly think that there's something deeply damaged at the heart of the American psyche. Why is it the #1 destination country for immigrants?

Not because of the American psyche, because the US is better at marketing an idealized (and false) version of its culture to the world than other countries.

Nevertheless, the US is a country that considers guns an inalienable right, but not healthcare, education or a living wage. Most of the rest of the world would consider that a pathologically insane set of priorities.

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

#939

Post by StreamBright »

blazespin wrote: post #833
skybrian wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't take that explanation at face value because it's describing a perpetual motion machine. Sales to your own employees are only going to be a trivial amount of revenue for any reasonable business. And I'm sure he knew that. But interpreted charitably, it's showmanship. This is a way to show leadership, get a lot of publicity, and hire better workers, so what's not to like?

The economy is a sort of perpetual motion machine / ponzi scheme. It's based on some common hallucination that the things we buy matter, and it's all backed up by money we loan each other. The moment we stop investing, borrowing and loaning, it will all come tumbling down. This is sort of what caused the panic of 2008 and why the governments had to step in with QE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzN0bVvKmQI
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