Photo: Geoff Robinson
Amazon has been under heavy scrutiny lately. The once beloved company has found itself in hot water with activists, employees, and concerned customers. Employees are underpaid, they’re working in grueling conditions under constant surveillance, and they’re monitored for any behavioral changes that could suggest unionization. Amazon’s finally addressing one of these concerns. They’re finally raising base salaries for Amazon warehouse employees.
Next month, Amazon warehouse employees will make $15/hour. For some warehouse employees, this will be a $5/hour raise. The average Amazon warehouse employee makes $13/hour, though they can start as low as $10 and stagnate there for some time. With this raise, more than 350,000 employees will see immediate increases on their paychecks. As many are currently living paycheck to paycheck, relying on welfare and food stamps, this could be exactly what employees have needed.
About Time
Amazon’s Stock value and earnings, via Robinhood
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is the richest man in the world. A single share of Amazon costs nearly $2,000 ($1,975 as of this writing). That’s one share, and nearly all analysts agree: it’s a stock people should buy, if they’re rich enough to afford it. For the past two quarters, Amazon has crushed their expected earnings by a wide margin. Amazon is making money hand over fist, and, until next month, they’ll have been doing it on the backs of underpaid employees who rely on food stamps to get by. Amazon has always had the ability to pay their employees fair wages and provide adequate benefits, but greed at the top has prevented it.
$15/hour is, for many people, enough to support themselves and potentially a family as well. It’s still less than the living wage required to live in cities in the United States, which is, as of 2017, $16.07/hour, on average for a family with two working adults and two children. The idea of $15/hour comes from the fact that a person likely wouldn’t need additional assistance just to live on it. This is what the federal minimum wage was supposed to be, a floor for our salaries, so the American citizen would not be expected to work full time and still live in poverty.
Unfortunately, by 2018, priorities have changed. Selfishness has replaced the desire to eliminate poverty for hardworking Americans.
This Shouldn’t Have Been a Fight
No American should have to work more than 40 hours a week to support themselves, to afford basic food and housing. A full time employee shouldn’t require food stamps to eat. Unfortunately, American law does not support these ideals. As such, large corporations have been able to take advantage of their employees, forcing them under the poverty line.
But there’s hope. Beyond a political solution, which is, unfortunately, many years away, American consumers are becoming more fickle. They’re doing their research and willing to abandon loyalties to companies when they discover these companies are abusing workers. Uber still hasn’t fully recovered from the #DeleteUber campaign over sexual harassment. Samsung, Apple, Dell, and other electronics manufacturers have forced China to improve standards. Consumers, when they make enough noise, can make a difference. That could be why Amazon finally decided to give their employees a fair wage. Or perhaps Jeff Bezos finally grew a conscience.
“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead. We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”
– Jeff Bezos
I want to believe, Mr. Bezos.
Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon Global Corporate Affairs, said that Amazon intends to advocate for a minim wage increase in the United States. Perhaps Amazon, tired of being the bad guy, has finally found a conscience. Or perhaps their majority shareholders finally realized that a boycott of Amazon could hurt their profits and devalue the company. Maybe they realized they’d have a hard time filling Amazon warehouses with employees when Target offers $15/hour.
Of course, Amazon still isn’t providing adequate health care, and doesn’t give employees the ability to protect themselves against unsafe or grueling working conditions. Employees are still urinating into bottles, afraid of taking a bathroom break. Amazon still has a long way to go.
Sources: