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While this is a very welcome development it would be more impressive to see them reform their slave like fulfilment center work practises. Employees are forced

by stirlo 8y ago

While this is a very welcome development it would be more impressive to see them reform their slave like fulfilment center work practises. Employees are forced to walk massive distances, have their every move tracked and are penalised for taking bathroom breaks. I doubt many people in Silicon Valley would consider $15 an hour a fair compensation for the oppressive work conditions.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Walking long distances isn't much of an issue. The human body is very well adapted to it (or built for it, depending on who you ask). Having a job that forces you to do it is good for your health. It's forcing people who might not be in the best of shape to be bending over, reaching, lifting, etc, etc all day that results in health problems.
- kazen44 8y ago
  Also, repitition of movement is killing your body aswell. Doing the exact same movement all day will eventually just wreck you.
tudelo 8y ago
Yet I know of many people now who work hard jobs and make 15 dollars an hour or less. Why does it matter if people in SV think it's good pay?
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  don't you know? Californian engineers are the arbiters of truth.
- adventured 8y ago
  This new $15 line means that a very large group of labor in the US now earns less than the lowest paid Amazon worker. It removes one of the two or three primary criticisms of Amazon (at least for a while). It's in fact a labor hammer on mom & pop businesses - who never pay well - at a time when there's an intense labor shortgage. Most likely, Amazon had to raise wages to fill its labor growth demands, and it's a PR benefit simultaneously. Given Amazon's profits are set to explode higher in the next few years, with AWS and advertising (~$20b in profit in 2020 is likely), it'll give them a competitive advantage to continue to raise wages as necessary and crush everyone else that can't follow. Your typical small or mid-size retailer simply can't generate the kind of return that Amazon can from advertising (which has extreme margins), it puts them in a competitive league above and beyond, which will spill over to being able to better compete on labor. It's good for labor, bad for competitors.
  - crdoconnor 8y ago
    Amazon would still prefer to collect the money as profit (and use it to expand or whatever). Their hand was forced by the labor unions.
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
> While this is a very welcome development it would be more impressive to see them reform their slave like fulfilment center work practises. Oh but they are - by investing heavily in automation and research, eventually making these workers obsolete.
wonderwonder 8y ago
I would argue that the majority of the warehouse staff would opt for the increased wage they just received over shorter walking distances.
michaelt 8y ago
Doesn’t every job with performance targets penalise taking breaks? There aren’t many jobs you can do on the can, after all!
Broken_Hippo 8y ago
The walking distances isn't really an issue so long as they are given adequate time to actually walk, provided proper footwear and other tools for the job (carts, for instance, so that they carry less), and given proper breaks of proper length (actually able to sit for 10 minutes, for instance). People get used to this over time. Every move being tracked and being penalised for bathroom breaks is an issue, however.

by stirlo 8y ago

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

Walking long distances isn't much of an issue. The human body is very well adapted to it (or built for it, depending on who you ask). Having a job that forces you to do it is good for your health. It's forcing people who might not be in the best of shape to be bending over, reaching, lifting, etc, etc all day that results in health problems.

kazen44 8y ago
Also, repitition of movement is killing your body aswell. Doing the exact same movement all day will eventually just wreck you.

tudelo 8y ago

Yet I know of many people now who work hard jobs and make 15 dollars an hour or less. Why does it matter if people in SV think it's good pay?

beaconstudios 8y ago
don't you know? Californian engineers are the arbiters of truth.
adventured 8y ago
This new $15 line means that a very large group of labor in the US now earns less than the lowest paid Amazon worker. It removes one of the two or three primary criticisms of Amazon (at least for a while). It's in fact a labor hammer on mom & pop businesses - who never pay well - at a time when there's an intense labor shortgage. Most likely, Amazon had to raise wages to fill its labor growth demands, and it's a PR benefit simultaneously. Given Amazon's profits are set to explode higher in the next few years, with AWS and advertising (~$20b in profit in 2020 is likely), it'll give them a competitive advantage to continue to raise wages as necessary and crush everyone else that can't follow. Your typical small or mid-size retailer simply can't generate the kind of return that Amazon can from advertising (which has extreme margins), it puts them in a competitive league above and beyond, which will spill over to being able to better compete on labor. It's good for labor, bad for competitors.
- crdoconnor 8y ago
  Amazon would still prefer to collect the money as profit (and use it to expand or whatever). Their hand was forced by the labor unions.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

> While this is a very welcome development it would be more impressive to see them reform their slave like fulfilment center work practises. Oh but they are - by investing heavily in automation and research, eventually making these workers obsolete.

wonderwonder 8y ago

I would argue that the majority of the warehouse staff would opt for the increased wage they just received over shorter walking distances.

michaelt 8y ago

Doesn’t every job with performance targets penalise taking breaks? There aren’t many jobs you can do on the can, after all!

Broken_Hippo 8y ago

The walking distances isn't really an issue so long as they are given adequate time to actually walk, provided proper footwear and other tools for the job (carts, for instance, so that they carry less), and given proper breaks of proper length (actually able to sit for 10 minutes, for instance). People get used to this over time. Every move being tracked and being penalised for bathroom breaks is an issue, however.