5 ms·

That’s because $20 is still humiliatingly low for the workload

by hwers 4y ago

bequanna 4y ago
They do actually require that you work, yes. There are plenty of lower paid jobs for those only interested in being a chair filler. But the pay is quite good for the required skillset.
rr808 4y ago
I'm not sure which planet you are on, but warehouse workers earn way less than $20/hr in most of the US, Europe or anywhere else.
- rxhernandez 4y ago
  Just because warehouse owners have the leverage to make it impossible to demand more doesn't make it any less humiliating.
- Retric 4y ago
  Many warehouses pay well over 20$/hour and others significantly less. What’s rarely mentioned is while Amazon’s compensation is roughly in line with industry norms, the workload is however much worse.
  - kolbe 4y ago
    Care to give some support for this intangible and unverifiable complaint?
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Just take a look at amazon warehouse worker turnover rate. No other company in the industry comes anywhere close. Amazon's strategy is to gamify work and force the workers to put the pedal to the metal until they burn out and quit.
      - gruez 4y ago
        >Just take a look at amazon warehouse worker turnover rate. No other company in the industry comes anywhere close. But all that says is "people don't want to work on amazon". It doesn't say why they don't want to work there. The parent post made a specific claim (ie. "the workload is however much worse"), which is consistent with worse working conditions, but not proof of it.
        colinmhayes 4y ago
        Well what are the reasons people would quit? 1. Low pay. As this thread pointed out Amazon actually pays above average for the warehouse industry. It doesn't make sense that their turnover is higher than other warehouse if people leave because the pay is too low. 2. Dislike of "big tech" and corporate capitalism more generally. Basically these are people who saw someone complain on twitter and quit. I doubt people that would quit of morals would take the job in the first place, this seems like a non-issue. 3. Unprepared for the workload that comes with warehouse work. All warehouse work is tough, if this is your first warehouse job you might not be ready for physical labor. This seems reasonable to me since Amazon advertises their warehouse jobs more than other warehouse companies. 4. Amazon's workload is higher than other warehouses. Given what we know about the workload on their white collar workers and the stories I've heard about the warehouse work this seems like the biggest contributor to their high turnover to me. Interested in hearing what you think the cause of their turnover could be.
        Retric 4y ago
        1 and 4 are linked. Fit able bodied workers willing and able to put in a full day of hard labor have more options and are therefore more expensive. Aka if you get laid off of a 25$/hour construction job you might temporarily work at Amazon while looking for work, but you’re not staying for years. Amazon workers may therefore be under paid for their capabilities independent of industry norms. 5. Double the workplace accident rate of the rest of the industry also plays a role. You don’t just lose workers directly as people also quit out of fear for their health. 6. It’s in part a seasonal job. Amazon doesn’t need or want a steady workforce and can play with their quotas to lay people off without paying for unemployment.
    - Retric 4y ago
      Just because you don’t like a statement doesn’t mean it’s unverifiable, objectively: Average Warehouse Worker Hourly Pay “Avg. Base Hourly Rate (USD)” $14.99/ hour and $19.57 is top 10%. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Hourly_Rate https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho... As to the job sucking, “Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at twice the rate of rivals, study finds“ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/study-amazon-workers-suffer-serious-injuries-at-twice-rate-of-rivals.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/study-amazon-workers-suffer-...
      - shepherdjerred 4y ago
        You didn't provide any info regarding the workload, but it seems like the injury rate is a legitimate issue. Amazon says that it's getting better in the article, and that it spent $300 million on safety (a very low number considering how much the company makes).
        Retric 4y ago
        I said the workload was worse, higher injury rates than norms is worse. If you want verification: "We’re developing new automated staffing schedules that use sophisticated algorithms to rotate employees among jobs that use different muscle-tendon groups to decrease repetitive motion and help protect employees from MSD risks.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm... In other words they are concerned that are pushing people to do their jobs faster than humanly possible but assumed they could make that pace sustainable by rotating jobs over the day rather than say reduce the pace to a sustainable level.
      - kolbe 4y ago
        Quoting statistics from labor union coalitions [0] (usually mob controlled and heavily influenced by their agenda) is really flimsy evidence, aside from the fact that causal inference is not a part of it. So, yes, I reassert this is 'unverifiable' unionist talking points. According to their own data, Amazon only had higher rates of "light duty" injury (most of which are not "serious" as they claim). This is easily explained by Amazon's need to report all cuts and bruises due to the targets on their backs, while others gladly omit them--especially say, unionized ones where the leaders would logically tell them to keep cuts and bruises silent to juice their numbers. [0] The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) is a democratic coalition of four labor unions: Service Employees International Union (SEIU), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Communications Workers of America (CWA) and United Farmworkers of America (UFW). Together, SOC-affiliated unions represent more than 4 million workers.
CamperBob2 4y ago
Well, clearly their mistake was failing to consult hwers on Hacker News when evaluating the market for warehouse labor.
leetcrew 4y ago
$20/hr is increasingly difficult to live on in higher COL areas of the US, but annualized at 40 hours per week, it's pretty close to the US median individual income. a household with two adults making that much would be well above the median household income. "humiliatingly low" is an exaggeration.

That’s because $20 is still humiliatingly low for the workload

by hwers 4y ago

That’s because $20 is still humiliatingly low for the workload

They do actually require that you work, yes. There are plenty of lower paid jobs for those only interested in being a chair filler. But the pay is quite good for the required skillset.

rr808 4y ago

I'm not sure which planet you are on, but warehouse workers earn way less than $20/hr in most of the US, Europe or anywhere else.

rxhernandez 4y ago
Just because warehouse owners have the leverage to make it impossible to demand more doesn't make it any less humiliating.
Retric 4y ago
Many warehouses pay well over 20$/hour and others significantly less. What’s rarely mentioned is while Amazon’s compensation is roughly in line with industry norms, the workload is however much worse.
- kolbe 4y ago
  Care to give some support for this intangible and unverifiable complaint?
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Just take a look at amazon warehouse worker turnover rate. No other company in the industry comes anywhere close. Amazon's strategy is to gamify work and force the workers to put the pedal to the metal until they burn out and quit.
    - gruez 4y ago
      >Just take a look at amazon warehouse worker turnover rate. No other company in the industry comes anywhere close. But all that says is "people don't want to work on amazon". It doesn't say why they don't want to work there. The parent post made a specific claim (ie. "the workload is however much worse"), which is consistent with worse working conditions, but not proof of it.
      - colinmhayes 4y ago
        Well what are the reasons people would quit? 1. Low pay. As this thread pointed out Amazon actually pays above average for the warehouse industry. It doesn't make sense that their turnover is higher than other warehouse if people leave because the pay is too low. 2. Dislike of "big tech" and corporate capitalism more generally. Basically these are people who saw someone complain on twitter and quit. I doubt people that would quit of morals would take the job in the first place, this seems like a non-issue. 3. Unprepared for the workload that comes with warehouse work. All warehouse work is tough, if this is your first warehouse job you might not be ready for physical labor. This seems reasonable to me since Amazon advertises their warehouse jobs more than other warehouse companies. 4. Amazon's workload is higher than other warehouses. Given what we know about the workload on their white collar workers and the stories I've heard about the warehouse work this seems like the biggest contributor to their high turnover to me. Interested in hearing what you think the cause of their turnover could be.
        Retric 4y ago
        1 and 4 are linked. Fit able bodied workers willing and able to put in a full day of hard labor have more options and are therefore more expensive. Aka if you get laid off of a 25$/hour construction job you might temporarily work at Amazon while looking for work, but you’re not staying for years. Amazon workers may therefore be under paid for their capabilities independent of industry norms. 5. Double the workplace accident rate of the rest of the industry also plays a role. You don’t just lose workers directly as people also quit out of fear for their health. 6. It’s in part a seasonal job. Amazon doesn’t need or want a steady workforce and can play with their quotas to lay people off without paying for unemployment.
  - Retric 4y ago
    Just because you don’t like a statement doesn’t mean it’s unverifiable, objectively: Average Warehouse Worker Hourly Pay “Avg. Base Hourly Rate (USD)” $14.99/ hour and $19.57 is top 10%. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Hourly_Rate https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Warehouse_Worker/Ho... As to the job sucking, “Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at twice the rate of rivals, study finds“ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/study-amazon-workers-suffer-serious-injuries-at-twice-rate-of-rivals.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/study-amazon-workers-suffer-...
    - shepherdjerred 4y ago
      You didn't provide any info regarding the workload, but it seems like the injury rate is a legitimate issue. Amazon says that it's getting better in the article, and that it spent $300 million on safety (a very low number considering how much the company makes).
      - Retric 4y ago
        I said the workload was worse, higher injury rates than norms is worse. If you want verification: "We’re developing new automated staffing schedules that use sophisticated algorithms to rotate employees among jobs that use different muscle-tendon groups to decrease repetitive motion and help protect employees from MSD risks.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm... In other words they are concerned that are pushing people to do their jobs faster than humanly possible but assumed they could make that pace sustainable by rotating jobs over the day rather than say reduce the pace to a sustainable level.
    - kolbe 4y ago
      Quoting statistics from labor union coalitions [0] (usually mob controlled and heavily influenced by their agenda) is really flimsy evidence, aside from the fact that causal inference is not a part of it. So, yes, I reassert this is 'unverifiable' unionist talking points. According to their own data, Amazon only had higher rates of "light duty" injury (most of which are not "serious" as they claim). This is easily explained by Amazon's need to report all cuts and bruises due to the targets on their backs, while others gladly omit them--especially say, unionized ones where the leaders would logically tell them to keep cuts and bruises silent to juice their numbers. [0] The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) is a democratic coalition of four labor unions: Service Employees International Union (SEIU), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Communications Workers of America (CWA) and United Farmworkers of America (UFW). Together, SOC-affiliated unions represent more than 4 million workers.

CamperBob2 4y ago

Well, clearly their mistake was failing to consult hwers on Hacker News when evaluating the market for warehouse labor.

leetcrew 4y ago

$20/hr is increasingly difficult to live on in higher COL areas of the US, but annualized at 40 hours per week, it's pretty close to the US median individual income. a household with two adults making that much would be well above the median household income. "humiliatingly low" is an exaggeration.