Amazon announced Tuesday that the trillion dollar company would raise its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $15. While this wage increase has been a long time coming, the actions taken by CEO Jeff Bezos and the rest of the management are definitely commendable.
Amazon employs more than 575,000 people, and the wage increase directly benefits 250,000 of them. Most of those people are warehouse workers who package and ship our orders, ensuring that our next-day delivery requirements are fulfilled. Those workers endure 12 hour shifts with short breaks and overwhelming shipping quotas—all for $11 an hour. But that’s the harsh truth of working that many of us don’t want to acknowledge. For survival, some people must work physically and mentally exhausting jobs with minimal pay.
Even then, survival isn’t easy. The current federal minimum wage is a dismal $7.25 and California’s at $11 per hour. In many cases, the minimum wage is not a living wage. That is, some people who work 40 hours a week are still unable to afford housing, transportation and food on their own. For example, Los Angeles’s living wage, as calculated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is $18.95. Nationally, the living wage is approximately $16. Even working full-time, debt and welfare are inevitable.
Sure, Bezos is deserving of respect for his company’s decision to increase their workers’ minimum wage. However, this does not excuse his suppression of unions and inhumane working conditions. Moreover, the pay raise was likely not implemented from altruistic motives. With the holiday season approaching and employment at a low four percent, the company was likely anticipating a scramble for workers.
But the fact remains that as a global economic leader, Bezos is setting a model for other corporations to follow. Workers form the backbone of our nation. They do all the work that makes middle and upper-class life convenient and comfortable. They serve the food at the restaurants we eat at; they clean the buildings we inhabit; they package your items for next-day shipment.
And they deserve to be able to live.