Six years ago, New York City fast food workers were met with disbelief when they called for $15 an hour pay. Three states and more cities are now on their way to $15, and Amazon just announced that $15 would be its wage floor in the United States, including for part-time and temporary workers.
Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the holiday season. They go into effect on Nov. 1.
The company had previously said the average hourly wage, including stock and incentive bonuses, for full-time workers at the fulfillment centers was more than $15 an hour, but it had not disclosed pay for part-time and contract workers.
That’s another major win for the still-growing movement of workers and unions who've been organizing around this issue for years, and it comes after Sen. Bernie Sanders helped apply more public pressure on Amazon specifically. Speaking of pressure, that’s what Walmart should be feeling from Amazon’s move. But the National Employment Law Project’s Christine Owens points out in a statement that Amazon itself has more work to do, by improving not just its wages but its working conditions, saying that “If Amazon really wants to lead on workplace standards, as CEO Jeff Bezos says, the company must remedy the problems arising from its fast-paced production demands and use of on-demand scheduling.”
It’s a start at Amazon, though, and another sign that even in Trump-era America, workers have the power to create change.
No comments: