Amazon's recent decision to increase the minimum wage for its workers to $ 15 was made for the right reasons.

The choice to pay workers has been largely market-driven. Faced with stiff competition for workers in the USA U.S. economy, Jeff Bezos rightly raised the minimum for the company's more than 575,000 employees worldwide. The increase puts more money in workers' pockets and gives them more purchasing power – an important economic measure for retailers such as Amazon.

As many economists note, corporate profits in the U.S. are booming, and the economy is more job options. That means firms like Amazon Raising the minimum hourly wage not only wins the company public relations points, but it's also a change of economic necessity.

The huge online retailer is a fast-growing, $ 900 billion company that has made Bezos the richest man in the world. As it has been expanded, it has become the second-largest employer in the country. It can afford to share more of that success with the employees that make it happen.

But that's not the financial story for many American businesses, especially many smaller companies that represent the majority of U.S. employers. That's why it's more important than the minimum wage – Minneapolis and some other cities have done – can have unintended negative consequences.

In regions and towns with lower costs of living, a lower wage can still provide workers with a good standard of living. And some employers with low profit margins facing mandated wage increases.

For Amazon, paying a premium for the poor and the poor. And the $ 15 minimum should help lower-skilled employees, reduce turnover, minimize retraining costs, and attract better job applicants.

In Minnesota, Amazon employs more than 2,000 full-time workers, most of them at a large fulfillment center in Shakopee. The company has a smaller outlet in Shakopee, a transportation hub in Eagan and a Minneapolis Minneapolis hub. And earlier this year, the company announced plans to hire additional employees and employees in the North Loop in Minneapolis, where it already has about 150 employees.

Before the move to the minimum $ 15, Amazon had been criticized by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and President Donald Trump for its treatment of lower-paid employees. And there have been some doubts about the wage earner because of the company. But on balance, the positive impact of the increase will be outweigh any negative.

"We listened to our critics, we thought about what we wanted to do, and we wanted to lead," Bezos said in a statement. "We're excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us."

Some of that is already happening. Last year, Minneapolis-based Target announced that it would raise its minimum pay to $ 15 an hour by 2020.

Amazon's decision is welcome. It is a large, growing and profitable U.S. companies.