Amazon.com Inc., which last month briefly joined the elite club alongside Apple of claiming market capitalization of $1 trillion, will now pay its workers a minimum wage of $15 per hour.
The increase covers its 250,000 U.S. full-time, part-time and temporary employees and its over 100,000 seasonal U.S. workers, as of Nov. 1, the company said Tuesday.
“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon AMZN, +0.14% founder and CEO.
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In August, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders solicited testimonials from Amazon warehouse workers about low pay for his website and used those stories to promote his legislation.
The typical U.S. Amazon employee was paid just over $34,000 annually in 2017 (the median runs at $28,446 when global wages are included), Securities and Exchange Commission filings have shown. For comparison, United Parcel Service Inc. UPS, -0.32% has reported median compensation of $53,433.
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Bezos recorded total compensation of $1,681,840 in 2017, almost all of which was money paid for personal security. Bezos drew a salary of $81,840 last year and received no additional stock. Bezos’s compensation is 59 times the median Amazon worker’s — information now required to be released as part of the Dodd-Frank Act upending financial regulation in the wake of the 2008 crisis.
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Amazon — which leaves investors and much of the nation on edge as it decides where to locate its satellite headquarters and the 50,000 new jobs that come with it — does offer health care coverage, 401(k) matching for qualifying employees and up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave in its benefits package.
“Amazon’s announcement that it was raising starting wages for employees to $15/hour, as well as other pay increases, is positive for the company despite the incremental costs that will result,” said Moody’s Lead Retail Analyst Charlie O’Shea, in a release, citing attracting and retaining a quality workforce.
“As we have seen with other retailers who have already done this, including Walmart WMT, +0.97% and Target TGT, -0.32% , the returns will ultimately outweigh the costs,” O’Shea said.
Amazon’s public policy team will also begin advocating for an increase to the current $7.25 federal minimum wage, set roughly a decade ago, the company said Tuesday.
