4 ms·

This is hardly Amazon's problem: If the minimum wage is not liveable, MSPs such as the one criticising Amazon in the article should work to increase it.

• stefantalpalaru 10y ago
  Amazon is getting tax cuts because it's creating a few jobs. Maybe it's time we realize that people don't need these terrible jobs in order to survive. They need water, food and shelter - all of which there's an overabundance of, in developed countries. An unconditional basic income would put a swift end to these abuses.
• CydeWeys 10y ago
  It's absolutely partly Amazon's problem. They're highly profitable, and they could choose to pay a living wage (other companies do), but they do not. I don't understand this impulse to absolve companies of all responsibility save from things they are legally mandated to do.
  • a3n 10y ago
    The only reason most companies pay a living wage is because they have to, to attract enough employees. Amazon pays as little as it does because it can. Almost the entire employment age population is qualified to work in a warehouse (I've done it). There is almost no competition for employees at that level, they're everywhere. People who can code and run huge network operations are relatively rare, so they're paid a lot; it's competition for scarce employees. It has nothing to do with responsibility. If Google could pay minimum wage it would. Not defending Amazon, just pointing out that they're paying the least they have to, just like Google is paying the least they have to.
  • cortesoft 10y ago
    So some poor guy who works for a company that doesn't make as much money as amazon doesn't also deserve a living wage? Wages are about supply and demand. There is enough supply of the caliber of workers that amazon needs willing to work at minimum wage to fill their demand for workers. If we think that amazon is making too much profit, and should distribute it more, then we should tax them more; that way, the benefit can spread to more people and not just the lucky ones who happen to work at amazon.
  • ukoki 10y ago
    Because it's the government's responsibility to ensure people have a minimum quality of life. It's naive to expect corporations to act charitably — a company is an organisation mandated to make as much money as possible. Even when a company does seemingly charitably things it's rarely anything other than a marketing/branding exercise.
• agf 10y ago
  I doubt it's a wage problem per se, it's that these are temporary, seasonal positions and it's not worth it for these employees to find a low-cost place for just a month, given the hours they'll likely be working.
• yarou 10y ago
  Yeah, it's not the company's fault, they should continue to pay below market wages and collude with other tech companies to artificially depress wages[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
  • theptip 10y ago
    The case you link is about wage collusion on high-tech jobs, hardly the same as this case of minimum-wage workers. Of course, if you have any evidence that Amazon is colluding with other employers of low-wage workers to keep their wages down, that would be germane and very interesting indeed.
  • ukoki 10y ago
    Well they certainly shouldn't break the law as they did in the case you linked to. But if law is insufficient to ensure people that have a minimum standard of living — it's the law that should be updated rather than trying to shame companies on an ad hoc basis.
• cabalamat 10y ago
  > MSPs such as the one criticising Amazon in the article should work to increase it. They can't. The level of the minimum wage is reserved to Westminster.
• user5994461 10y ago
  It is strictly impossible to achieve. Whatever the wages are, the prices of everything (starting with accommodation and food) will adjust to burn most of it. That is very effective in major cities and that's why they are so hard on everyone.