Amazon recently announced they will give pay raises to their employees and set a new policy that their minimum wage is $15.00 per hour. Employees making more than $15.00 per hour will also see pay increases.
Great! I was surprised and even impressed. The action seems a result of the strong economy and the success of President Trump’s economic policies. Still, it was also a reaction to negative stories about a significant portion of Amazon’s workforce collecting food stamps due to the corporate monolith’s notoriously low pay, especially when compared with its billions of dollars in profits annually.
But, back to the positive. Amazon is encouraging its competitors to match the wage hike, which is fine. We’re still in the realm of voluntary.
Then Amazon added something not so great. This part neither impressed nor, sadly, surprised me, considering the company’s politically left leaning public facade.
The company jumped on the leftist dias and called for raising the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. According to CNBC.com “Amazon said it will also advocate for an increase to the federal minimum wage.”
How nice. One of the largest and richest corporations to have ever existed on the planet makes a grand, free market, capitalist, voluntary, American gesture. Then they ruin it by calling on the federal government to force their competitors to match Amazon’s “generosity.”
Hey, Amazon! How about you stick to being generous with your own money and let others decide how to spend theirs?
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