Connor Fitzgerald
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, Amazon had
released a statement that they are raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour
for United States employees. The raises apply to part-time workers and people
hired by temporary agencies. Amazon has also said they believe the American
minimum wage should be raised.
The current minimum
wage in the U.S. has been around $7.25 for almost 10 years or so now. The new
minimum wage from Amazon will affect approximately 250,000 employees and to
100,000 more workers they plan to hire for the holiday season.
This change in pay will
start on Nov. 1. Jeff Bezos has always received criticism for Amazon’s low pay.
After Bezos announced this, Target stated they would raise their minimum wage
to $15 by 2020. Walmart also exclaimed they would raise their minimum wage to
$11 an hour in January.
“We listened to our
critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,”
Amazon’s executive, Jeff Bezos, had stated. “We’re excited about this change
and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”
Amazon has
significantly changed the retailing industry in the past couple of years.
Amazons’ high popularity and sales have caused many businesses and stores in
the sectors Amazon disrupts to go out of business. One example of this is the
closing of the toy store company Toys “R” Us. President Donald Trump is not a
fan of this and believes that it is ruining the industries.
