Amazon’s Minimum Wage Will Change How Americans Think About Work
If $15 becomes the new floor for pay, more people will be willing to change jobs or work part-time.
Jeff Bezos welcomes you to Amazon’s world.
Photographer: Jason Redmond/AFP, via Getty Images
The news that Amazon will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour has a direct impact on its workers and its bottom line, but the more lasting impact may be for America's middle class and corporate employer psychology at large.
By now, higher minimum wages have been a labor market and political theme for several years. The “Fight for $15” movement began as early as 2012 in the wake of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Walmart became the first large employer to announce an increase in its minimum wage, in early 2015. At the time, observers were cynical about its motivations and Wall Street hated the move, making Walmart stock one of the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s worst performers in 2015.