Target's CEO Brian Cornell recently said that the number of job applicants rose by 60 percent in the days after Target increased its minimum wage by $2 to $11 per hour last year. This past spring, it raised its starting hourly pay for its workers to $12. Target said last September that it planned to raise hourly pay to $15 by 2020. With Tuesday's move, Amazon has done that already.<doc-sep>Amazon increases minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour Amazon just announced that it will be raising its minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour, effective November 1. The policy will cover employees at Amazon subsidiaries, including Whole Foods, and well as seasonal and temporary employees. Amazon says that in total, this will cover 250,000 employees, plus 100,000 seasonal employees. This comes as Amazon is facing increasing scrutiny over how its workers are treated and paid. Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, recently introduced legislation to end what he calls “corporate welfare” — and it’s pretty clear who he had in mind, since the bill was titled Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS). Meanwhile, a group of Whole Foods workers have been pushing to unionize, with demands that included a $15 minimum wage. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the announcement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.” Amazon says its existing benefits will not change, except that its RSU stock grant program will be phased out for hourly fulfillment and customer service employees and replaced with a direct stock purchase plan, supposedly because those employees “prefer the predictability and immediacy of cash to RSUs.” In addition, the company also pledges its public policy team will lobby for an increase to the federal minimum wage from $7.25 — it doesn’t identify a specific wage that it’s targeting, but instead says, “We believe $7.25 is too low. We would look to Congress to decide the parameters of a new, higher federal minimum wage.” What Mr. Bezos has done today is not only enormously important for Amazon’s hundreds of thousands of employees, it could well be a shot heard around the world. I urge corporate leaders around the country to follow Mr. Bezos' lead. https://t.co/06wIAHunPq — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 2, 2018<doc-sep>Employment has become one of Amazon’s most potent political vulnerabilities as well as its most important political message. The shift to online shopping, led by Amazon, has forced many retailers like Toys “R” Us and Sears to shut down or lay off workers across the country. President Trump has criticized the company for hurting traditional retailers, and some lawmakers have called for the company to be broken up. At the same time, jobs at Amazon’s warehouses and sorting centers have boomed. The company now employs about 575,000 people worldwide, up more than 50 percent in the past year, a fact Amazon frequently plays up. But the pay of those workers has become a growing issue for activists, especially as the fortunes of Amazon and Mr. Bezos have skyrocketed. Amazon’s market capitalization passed $1 trillion last month, though it has since fallen slightly below that level. Mr. Bezos is now the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $165 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “I think they saw the writing on the wall. I think they saw the calculation that it was indefensible that a man whose wealth is over $150 billion be able to continue paying workers wages that are so low that they are forced to rely on federal benefits,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in an interview after the announcement. “Smart people are willing to change course.” Mr. Sanders and labor organizers have criticized the wages and conditions of Amazon’s work force. They have focused on employees at the company’s warehouses, and with the contract drivers who make last-mile deliveries. Some workers at the grocery chain Whole Foods, which Amazon bought last year, have recently begun a push to organize a union.<doc-sep>The company and CEO Jeff Bezos have been facing criticism for its pay disparity. Sen. Bernie Sanders last month introduced legislation called the Bezos Act to tax corporations for every dollar that their low-wage workers receive in government health-care benefits or food stamps. Amazon said the effect of the higher pay will be reflected in its forward-looking quarterly guidance. Shares of Amazon were trading marginally lower Tuesday morning. The new minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 Amazon employees — including part-time and temporary employees — as well as another 100,000 seasonal employees, the company said. Some employees who already make $15 per hour will also see a pay increase. Amazon announced Tuesday it's raising the minimum wage for all U.S. employees to $15, effective next month. "Today I want to give credit where credit is due," Sanders said in response to the announcement. "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." Amazon said it will also start advocating for an increase to the federal minimum wage. Amazon's starting pay varies by location — $10 an hour at a warehouse in Austin, Texas, for example, and $13.50 an hour in Robbinsville, New Jersey. For 2017, the median Amazon employee earned just under $28,500, according to company filings. Bezos earned $1.7 million. Amazon is also raising wages for British employees to a minimum of £10.50 ($13.61) for workers in London and £9.50 ($12.31) in the rest of the country. "We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead," Bezos said in a statement. "We're excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us." Retail rival Target announced in its holiday hiring release it would raise minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2020. Walmart announced plans in January to raise its minimum wage to $11. The announcement comes ahead of Amazon's annual holiday hiring push. Last year the e-commerce giant said it would hire 120,000 temporary employees for the holiday season. In August, national wage growth posted its biggest increase of the economic recovery, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Payroll gains beat expectations and the unemployment rate held near a generational low of 3.9 percent — making holiday hiring tougher for many retailers. —CNBC's Tom Rotunno and Jeff Cox contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed. WATCH: Jeff Bezos is so much bigger than Amazon — a look at his extraordinary empire<doc-sep>
Amazon announced today that it will raise its minimum wage for all US employees to $15 per hour. The change will take effect on November 1 and will apply to full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers. Overall, more than 250,000 Amazon workers will get a pay raise from this, in addition to more than 100,000 seasonal employees that the company hires at various times throughout the year. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. The company's public policy team will also be advocating for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour. The federal minimum wage hasn't risen since 2009. Amazon employee pay depends heavily on location: hourly workers in some areas of the country get paid $10 per hour while others are already making more than $15 per hour (employees who fall into the latter category can expect to see a slight pay bump as well). Currently, the median annual income for an Amazon employee is just under $28,500. The retail giant has faced criticism for not paying its workers enough, especially in light of Bezos' immense wealth—he's currently considered the richest person in the world, with a net worth of about $165 billion. Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation that would tax businesses for the cost of employees' food stamps and other assistance programs. The bill's name is a dig at Bezos himself—"Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act," or the Stop BEZOS Act. Amazon isn't the only company making moves to raise wages for its employees. Target recently vowed to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. Walmart announced back in January that it plans to raise its minimum wage to $11 per hour. Amazon's announcement comes nearly one month after the company reached a big milestone: a market value of $1 trillion. It hit that mark on September 5, just weeks after Apple became the first company to ever reach a $1 trillion valuation.