Last week, internet retailer Amazon was the darling of the press and a good many politicians of left persuasion when the company announced it was hiking its minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The praise was heaped upon Amazon quite mightily, as the
corporate giant’s move fed the narratives around the Fight for Fifteen and many
thought CEO Jeff Bezos was showing a brand of benevolent leadership that other
companies should follow.
Let’s hope they don’t.
Amazon’s $15 push is at best a half-hearted attempt to
improve the financial outcomes of their employees. It’s more of a charade, an
excellent marketing ploy that, in the first week, has looked pretty darn
effective in endearing the company to the masses.
Giving their employees an extra $1 to $2.50 will do little
to advance their lot in life if a great number of them are not given full-time
hours and benefits.
Last month and again this past Saturday, Amazon held job
fairs to attempt to hire hundreds of part-time workers for their fulfillment
center in Lancaster. The job posting is still open on websites like Indeed
where it shows three shifts of availability, each one only 4 hours in length.
If someone is working 5 days, that’s a 20-hour week. If someone gets a sixth
day (the help wanted ad does say at least one weekend day is mandatory), you’re
talking 24 hours a week.
That’s a far cry from a standard 40-hour workweek and the
potential for overtime that exists in other workplaces. Earnings are one-half
to 60 percent of what they would be elsewhere at a similar rate of pay for a
full-time week, considerably more for an overtime week.
The proof is in the pudding: Reports show that the median --
not mean -- annual pay for Amazon’s half-million workers was just over $28,400
last year. So, half their workforce earns less than that.
Hiring hundreds of part-timers in the local warehouse, just
as it is done at their other fulfillment centers, rather than half as many
full-timers is a business decision done to not only keep overtime costs down
but also to mitigate the impact of benefits. In the job market, full-time workers
expect and deserve benefits. Unfortunately, benefits of any import are rarely
extended to part-timers by anyone, and Amazon is taking full advantage of that.
You can see that by downloading the company’s benefits
overview. Part-time employees are granted 6 paid holidays, another benefit they
call generous unpaid time off (there’s nothing generous about unpaid
vacations), dental and vision for the worker only (not her family), and $500
per year to spend on medical expenses, which means no health insurance is
funded ($500 won’t put a dent in a $16,000 family plan). It’s no wonder Amazon
had come under fire in recent years for having impoverished employees who,
despite the company’s wealth ($177.9 billion in revenues last year),
disproportionately rely on SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid. An April report by
the Intercepter found that Amazon was the 28th largest employer in Arizona but
it ranked 5th for the number of employees enrolled in SNAP. It held the 5th
slot in Pennsylvania as well, though it’s only the 19th largest employer. In
Ohio, Amazon ranked 53rd in overall employment but 19th when it came to
employees using SNAP.
That’s an outcome of low hours and low benefits. Going to
$15 an hour won’t help if opportunity for either isn’t there.
Yet, that same company which was just labeled the bad guy
months ago for the SNAP abuses is now looked at as the hero and has vowed to
take up the fight to raise the legal standards. Jay Carney, senior vice
president of Amazon global corporate affairs, said in a statement, "We
intend to advocate for a minimum wage increase that will have a profound impact
on the lives of tens of millions of people and families across this
country."
This coming from a company that does an end around to not
make their workers’ lives fulfilling enough, all while receiving, since 2000,
more than $1.1 billion in tax breaks from local and state governments in the
US.
Is that the sort of capitalist heroism policymakers and
workers want to hold up as being virtuous?
If you want economic heroes look to the small business
driven by ethics as much as the bottom line – your local factories,
restaurants, retailers, contractors, etc. -- that pay a decent wage, have a
steady 40-hour week, offer overtime, grant paid vacations, issue bonuses, and
fund health insurance either in-part or whole. They’re the ones really making a
difference in the lives of America’s working families.
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Bob Confer has written a weekly opinion column for the Lockport Union Sun & Journal and the Niagara Gazette since 2005. That column also went to print for the Batavia Daily News in 2018.
Bob also writes a nature, science, and outdoors column for All WNY News called "Exploring the Niagara Frontier". Bob is the President of Confer Plastics, Inc., a blow molder that employs 250 people in North Tonawanda, NY. Learn about the company at www.ConferPlastics.com. He is also a property owner in Allegany County.
Bob also writes a nature, science, and outdoors column for All WNY News called "Exploring the Niagara Frontier". Bob is the President of Confer Plastics, Inc., a blow molder that employs 250 people in North Tonawanda, NY. Learn about the company at www.ConferPlastics.com. He is also a property owner in Allegany County.