Amazon Raises its Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

It’s a win for Senator Bernie Sanders, who had recently introduced legislation to end what he calls “corporate welfare.”

Giant Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has decided to up the company’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Starting November 1st, all of Amazon’s U.S. workers will make $15 an hour, this includes subsidiaries, such as Whole Foods, and well as seasonal and temporary employees.

Amazon says that in total, this will cover 250,000 employees, plus 100,000 seasonal employees.

Sanders tweeted, “What Mr. Bezos has done today is not only enormously important for Amazon’s hundreds of thousands of employees, it could well be a shot heard around the world. I urge corporate leaders around the country to follow Mr. Bezos’ lead.”

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president for worldwide operations, told ABC News, “Just in time for the holidays for all our employees.”

Amazon also pledges that its public policy team will lobby for an increase to the federal minimum wage from $7.25. It said, “We believe $7.25 is too low. We would look to Congress to decide the parameters of a new, higher federal minimum wage.”

“We will be working to gain Congressional support for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The current rate of $7.25 was set nearly a decade ago,” 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.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.