Amazon unilaterally upped its minimum wage, even for part-time workers. Now it wants every company to do the same.
Starting November 1, Amazon to Raise Its Minimum U.S. Wage to $15 an Hour.
The new minimum wage covers more than 250,000 current employees and 100,000 seasonal holiday employees. The new salary increase will also cover part-time and temporary workers hired by agencies.
“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, in a statement.
Amazon’s current hourly wages vary. According to a survey of job postings, starting pay for such workers can be as low as $10 an hour or as high as $14.
An Amazon spokesman declined to provide its current average starting pay in the U.S. In April, an Amazon spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal it had been paying its full-time U.S. warehouse workers an average hourly wage of more than $15, though that included stock and incentive bonuses.
Previously, Amazon’s starting wages have ranged based on where workers are located. For example, a current job posting for a full-time warehouse worker in Omaha, Neb., starts at $12.25 an hour, while a similar job in Madison, Wis., starts at $11. Part-time workers doing customer service from home start at $10 an hour.
Bottom Line Profits
A 50-cent raise an hour across 250,000 employees, for example, would imply a post-tax impact on operating profit of roughly $200 million, or 1% or 2%, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co.
Amazon’s wage increase may cause some financial pressure over the next year and a half, said Youssef Squali, internet analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. But Amazon has never been about profitability, “it’s historically been about growth, growth, growth,” he added.
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Lead image from the TechCrunch article Amazon increases minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour.
