Sen. Bernie Sanders has been one of Amazon.com Inc.’s staunchest critics. That’s why a rare instance of praise from the Vermont senator and 2016 presidential candidate is notable, following the U.S.’s second largest employer’s announcement on Tuesday that it is raising the minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour:

‘What Mr. Bezos has done today is not only enormously important for Amazon’s hundreds of thousands of employees, it could well be, and I think it will be, a shot heard around the world.’ Bernie Sanders

“Today, I want to give credit where credit is due,” Sanders said following Amazon’s announcement.

Back in early September, Sanders rolled out legislation that would tax corporations for the federal benefits their employees receive, named Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies, and nicknamed the BEZOS Act, which was a barely veiled reference to Amazon’s AMZN, +0.16% multibillionaire CEO Jeff Bezos, whom the 77-year-old senator had accused of not paying his workers a living wage.

Amazon’s shares were up less than 0.1% late morning Tuesday, having reversed an earlier decline, but have gained 72% this year, compared with a 9.4% rise by the broad-market S&P 500 index SPX, +0.15% over the past nine months and an 8.2% climb for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.46% thus far in 2018.

Amazon’s outsized gains this year have helped to make Bezos significantly wealthier; he now boasts a net worth of $163.4 billion, according to Forbes data.

Meanwhile, Amazon has been pilloried for the working conditions at some of its fulfillment centers.

Dave Clark, senior vice president of operations at the e-tail behemoth, posted on Twitter a video clip of workers receiving the news at an Amazon all-hands meeting early Tuesday:

Shared the new Amazon $15 minimum wage with the team here at LGB3 early this morning! Best All Hands Ever!!!