Associated Press Seattle – Amazon, which has faced political and economic pressure to raise pay for thousands of employees, is boosting its minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 per hour starting next month. The company said Tuesday that the wage hike will benefit more than 350,000 workers, which includes full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal positions. Employees at Whole Foods, which Amazon now owns, will get the same pay hike. Amazon’s hourly operations and customer service employees, some who already make $15 per hour, will also see a wage increase, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon has more than 575,000 employees globally. Pay for workers at Amazon can vary by location. Starting pay is $10 an hour at a warehouse in Austin, Texas, and $13.50 an hour in Robbinsville, New Jersey. The median pay for an Amazon employee last year was $28,446, according to government filings, which includes full-time, part-time and temporary workers. Amazon is facing criticism from labor rights groups and others over pay and working conditions at its warehouses. One of its harshest critics is U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. His Twitter account, which has nearly 9 million followers, frequently points out the disparity between Amazon’s median employee pay and the vast fortune of CEO Jeff Bezos. The company this summer said that it would begin to pay workers to be “ambassadors” and tweet full-time about how satisfied they were at their jobs. Amazon has revolutionized how people shop online and is the world’s dominant internet retailer. In two decades the company expanded far beyond its bookseller beginnings, combining its world-spanning retail operation with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud computing businesses. Last month it became the second publicly traded company to be worth $1 trillion, hot on the heels of Apple. But it shares one potential hurdle that is growing higher for almost all employers: a tightening labor market. The last hiring figures from the U.S. Commerce Department showed that in August, the pace of hiring rose again and wages grew at their fastest pace in nine years. Competition among companies for qualified workers is growing more intense, and they are increasingly willing to pay. Last fall Target committed to giving its employees $15 per hour by the end of 2020. And in January Walmart raised its starting wages to $11 per hour. But corporate profits in the U.S. are booming, and that wealth isn’t being spread out nearly fast enough for many. On Tuesday, fast food workers in Michigan are going to kick off a series of protests in the Midwest and elsewhere around the country in support of unions and a $15 minimum age. Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said Tuesday that while Amazon’s wage hike is a politically savvy move, it’s also a change made out of economic necessity. With a healthy U.S. economy, Americans looking for work have an increasing number of job options, so Amazon has to find ways to entice people to join its company. Amazon said its public policy team will start pushing for an increase in the U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. “We intend to advocate for a minimum wage increase that will have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people and families across this country,” Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon global corporate affairs, said in a statement. Amazon is also increasing wages in some areas outside the U.S. The company announced that the minimum wage will be 10.50 pounds an hour in London and 9.50 pounds in other parts of the UK. The increases will include 17,000 Amazon employees as well as 20,000 seasonal workers.<doc-sep>Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story misstated the value of Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods in 2017. Amazon paid $13.7 billion for the grocery chain. SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon is making another major delivery, this time for its employees: a $15 hourly minimum wage. The e-tailing giant said Tuesday it would increase its minimum wage on Nov. 1 to $15 for all U.S. full-time, part-time, seasonal and temporary employees, including temps hired by agencies. That includes employees at Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired for $13.7 billion in June 2017. Amazon currently has more than 250,000 Amazon employees, and plans to hire more than 100,000 seasonal employees this holiday season. The company had recently been the target of criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who said Amazon doesn't pay its lower-level employees a fair wage. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos in a statement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.” Amazon also said it would begin lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25. “The current rate ... was set nearly a decade ago,” Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon Global Corporate Affairs, said in a statement. “We intend to advocate for a minimum wage increase that will have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people and families across this country.” More:Amazon becomes a major contender in digital advertising: A Foolish Take More:Amazon second headquarters search has become a cultural meme, a year after it began More:An Amazon HQ2 timeline Sanders, who introduced a bill called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (aka the Stop BEZOS Act), complimented Amazon on the move. "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," Sanders said in a statement. "I urge corporate leaders around the country to follow Mr. Bezos lead, and I congratulate him for what he has done." To that, Bezos responded on Twitter: "Thank you @SenSanders. We're excited about this, and also hope others will join in." Profiting from the internet revolution Members of Congress have railed against Amazon for paying its warehouse workers far too little as it has grown to be the world's second most valuable company and its CEO the world’s richest person. “If you work for Amazon full time and you still can’t make ends meet, that’s a problem,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, lead House sponsor of the bill. While it’s unclear if Amazon’s move was a direct response to the introduction of the bill, the raise means Amazon would no longer be subject to it — companies that pay at least $15 per hour or more are not affected. Amazon has made billions by leveraging and building on the internet revolution of the past 20 years, Khanna said. “If you are profiting from changes in the economy, we need to make sure that everyone in this country has a stake in that economy.” According to the job site Glassdoor, Amazon’s average wages at its fulfillment centers is $13 an hour. A rise to $15 is an increase of 15.4%. It represents a raise to about $30,000 a year for a full-time worker, 20% above the federal poverty level for a family of four. “Amazon’s $15 an hour minimum wage is a sign they care about employees. (It's a) smart move to win consumers and lawmakers,” said Gene Munster, a venture capitalist at Loup Ventures and long-time tech analyst. Earlier this year, Target increased its minimum wage for employees to $12, with plans to raise it to $15 by 2020. Walmart increased its minimum wage for employees to $11; many other companies also raised wages or gave bonuses to employees after the passage of the tax reform bill late last year. A campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 has been fought for in several cities and states, and Massachusetts passed a bill to hit that mark by 2023. The minimum wage hike at Amazon comes as it is searching for a home for its second U.S. headquarters, which will employ as many as 50,000 people. The company has a history of complaints about grueling workplace conditions and lower wages, and has had to deal with lawsuits, picketing and issues with management tactics. In August, Sanders blasted Amazon, saying its workers were forced to rely on government programs for subsistence. "Bottom line: the taxpayers of this country should not have to subsidize employees at a company owned by Mr. Bezos, who is worth $155 billion. That is absurd," Sanders said. The company challenged Sanders calling his accusations "misleading." In a 2015 article in The New York Times, employees described a "soulless, dystopian" work environment of long hours and and a lack of empathy for employees' health-related issues. At the time, Bezos said the story "doesn’t describe the Amazon I know." In a memo to employees, he promised to address the situation. "Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero," he wrote. Amazon employee benefits also include healthcare coverage (including medical, dental and vision), up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave, matching 401K retirement plan, tuition assistance for courses “in high-demand fields” and other career training. Mike Snider reported from McLean, Virginia. Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.<doc-sep>
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon, the business that upended the retailing industry and transformed the way we shop for just about everything, is jumping out ahead of the pack again, announcing a minimum wage of $15 an hour for its U.S. employees that could force other big companies to raise their pay. The online giant also said it will push Congress to increase the federal minimum wage, now at $7.25. Given Amazon's size and clout, the move Tuesday is a major victory for the $15-an-hour movement, which has organized protests of fast-food, gas station and other low-paid workers. Already, several states and cities have raised their minimum wages above the federal one. Amazon, whose value topped an awesome $1 trillion in September, has been under political and economic pressure to pay its employees more. "We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. But Amazon may also be offering raises out of necessity: With the economy booming and unemployment near rock bottom, employers are having difficulty finding help. Amazon, with about 100 warehouses around the country, will soon need to hire more than 100,000 workers to pack and ship boxes during the holiday season. The wage increase takes effect next month. Amazon said the move will benefit more than 350,000 workers, including full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal positions. Employees at Whole Foods, the upscale grocery chain Amazon owns, will get the same raise. Hourly employees who already make $15 per hour will also see a wage increase, the Seattle company said. (Workers in Britain will also get a raise.) Current pay for warehouse workers at Amazon is at least $12.25 an hour in Omaha, Nebraska, $13 in Baltimore and $16.50 in New York, according to recent job postings. The announcement was enough to soothe one of Amazon's fiercest critics: Sen. Bernie Sanders. The senator, who frequently uses Twitter to point out the disparity between Amazon's hourly wages and Bezos' vast fortune, congratulated Bezos for "doing exactly the right thing" and urged other companies to follow Amazon's example. Story continues Sanders described Amazon's move as "a shot heard around the world." It will have repercussions beyond retailers and will put pressure on any company that operates a distribution center, said Gerald Storch of the retail consulting firm Storch Advisors. "This will lead to a general increase in minimal wages in all industries," he said. At the same time, Storch said, the wage increase will widen the gap between the healthy retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, and the struggling ones, which won't be able to afford to compete on salary. "The weaker retailers have been cutting costs and squeezing every penny," Storch said. "They are in a very tough place." Amazon, founded more than two decades ago, has expanded far beyond its bookseller beginnings. Despite its dominance, it shares a major problem with employers big and small: a tight labor market. Unemployment in the U.S. is 3.9 percent, near an 18-year low. Higher pay for workers is one way of dealing with that. "They'll gladly cross the street and take a better-paying job," said Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL, a supply chain consulting company. Walmart raised its starting pay to $11 an hour earlier this year and said it has seen lower turnover among its employees. Target, which announced plans last year to raise hourly wages in steps to $15 by 2020 and now pays $12 an hour, said the number of job applicants rose 60 percent in the days after it increased its minimum by $2 to $11 per hour last year. Amazon said it doesn't expect to raise prices for its products to pay for the wage increases. "Customers are going continue to see incredibly low prices every day," said Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations. The push for a higher federal minimum wage will be overseen by Amazon's Jay Carney, White House press secretary during the Obama administration. Amazon won't ask Congress to raise the minimum to a specific number. But "we're sure $7.25 is too low," Carney said. ___ AP reporters Anne D'Innocenzio in New York; Michelle Chapman in Newark, New Jersey; and Chris Rugaber in Washington also contributed to this report.