Amazon adopts $15 minimum wage for all US workers following months of criticism

Retail giant Amazon has announced it will be raising its minimum wage for all US workers to $15 (£11.56) an hour from 1 November onwards. The policy will cover employees across all subsidiaries, including Whole Foods, as well as seasonal and temporary employees, for a predicted total of around 250,000 staff plus 100,000 seasonal workers.

Amazon has been the focus of increasing scrutiny over worker pay and treatment, especially after the firm became the second-ever company to hit a trillion-dollar valuation. Workers at fulfillment centres carry out physically demanding work, reportedly having to hit strict performance targets that constantly increase while also being pressured to take voluntary time off (and therefore lose out on wages) as soon as demand drops.

Other reports have claimed workers have taken to urinating in bottles on the warehouse floor rather than take bathroom breaks due to pressure to perform, and that as many as one in three Amazon employees in certain regions have qualified for the SNAP food stamps program. These claims are particularly alarming given that CEO Jeff Bezos is currently the richest man in the world, and is estimated to earn the median annual wage of an Amazon employee every nine seconds.

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Bezos in the announcement. “Were excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

Other benefits to Amazon employees will not change, except that the firms RSU stock grant program will be phased out for hourly fulfillment and customer service employees, and replaced with a direct stock purchase plan. According to Amazon, its data shows that hourly employees “prefer the predicatability and immedacy of cash to RSUs”.

In addition to raising its own wages, Amazon has committed to working to raise the federal minimum wage in the US. Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon global corporate affairs, said that the firm would be working to gain Congressional support for raising the current rate of $7.25, which was set nearly a decade ago.

“We intend to advocate for a minimum wage increase that will have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people and families across this country.”

The minimum wage in the US and elsewhere has become an increasingly fraught issue over the past few years, with many critics pointing to the disparity between minimum wages and calculated living wages, especially in urban areas. The growing wealth gap and the rise of worker automation, which will lead to fewer job opportunities for low paid work, has led to some calling for serious study into government-supported national minimum incomes. Amazon is one of the firms leading the push towards automation, with recent reports suggesting the company is hoping to open 3,000 cashierless stores in the US by 2021.