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Effective November 1, Amazon will pay all US employees a minimum wage of $ 15 per hour, which, according to the e-commerce giant, will impact more than 250,000 full-time and on-time employees partial and 100,000 seasonal workers. Amazon also announced that it would push for an increase in the federal minimum wage, currently set at $ 7.25 per hour.
Amazon is facing more and more serious reactions regarding the treatment of its warehouse workers. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had already set a target for the company's median salary, estimated at about $ 28,000, claiming that one out of every three Amazonian workers in Arizona benefits from state aid. A recent publication from Amazon SEC indicates the median wage at 28,446 USD (which implies that half of its workers earn less). An hourly wage of $ 15 for an employee working 40 hours per week corresponds to a gross annual income of $ 31,200 before overtime, or about $ 30,000 per year with two weeks of unpaid vacation.
This hourly wage of $ 15 will be paid without having to achieve any goals, said the company. Operations and Customer Service employees already earning $ 15 per hour will also experience an unspecified increase. In the United States, retail workers' wages average $ 13.20, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"We listened to our critics, thought about what we wanted to do and decided to lead," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a statement. "We are excited about this change and are encouraging our competitors and other major employers to join us."
The company also announced that it would impose a minimum wage of £ 9.50 in the United Kingdom (from £ 8.50) to £ 10.50 (£ 8.20 previously) for employees in the London. According to the Living Wage Foundation of the United Kingdom, the living wage is £ 8.75 for the whole of the United Kingdom and £ 10.20 for London. Amazon's new minimums exceed both.
The movement was greeted with cautious praise by activists. James Bloodworth, the British journalist who spent three weeks working undercover at an Amazon distribution center in the UK, tweeted, "That's good, but there is still a lot to do (…). Now let's stop draconian productivity goals: these are disciplinary policies. "
Amazon is not the only company to increase its wages in the light of criticism. Earlier this year, the Walt Disney Company agreed to raise the wages of some of its Walt Disney World employees to $ 15 an hour. Walmart and Target have both increased their respective minimum wages to $ 11 an hour this year, with the goal of raising it to $ 15 by 2020.
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