Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 per hour for all 350K+ US workers, including part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees, effective next month
here are the costs and benefits US Day One Blog : Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to $15 for All U.S. Employees Conor Sen / Bloomberg : Amazon's Minimum Wage Will Change How Americans Think About Work Derek Thompson / The Atlantic : Amazon's $15 Minimum Wage Is a Brilliant Business Strategy Karen Weise / New York Times : Amazon to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All U.S. Workers Makena Kelly / The Verge : Amazon's triumphant pay raise is also a political play Rani Molla / Recode : Half of U.S. Uber drivers make less than $10 an hour after vehicle expenses, according to a new study Daphne Howland / Retail Dive : How big is Amazon's wage increase? Louise Matsakis / Wired : Why Amazon Really Raised Its Minimum Wage to $15 Washington Post : Amazon boosts minimum wage to $15 for all workers following criticism Ellen Tannam / Silicon Republic : What's behind Amazon's increases in minimum wage? Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE : Under pressure, Amazon will introduce $15 minimum wage for 350,000 US workers UK Day One Blog : Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to £10.50 for the London area and £9.50 for All Other Parts of the UK Sissi Cao / Observer : Amazon Hikes Minimum Wage at Prime Time to Win 2018 Holiday Season Tweets: @amazonnews : The new Amazon $15 minimum wage will benefit more than 350k FT, PT, temp., & seasonal employees. We encourage other large employers to join us in raising starting pay & @amazon_policy will advocate for Congress to raise the fed. min. wage #Amazon15 http://blog.aboutamazon.com/ ... Jeff Bezos / @jeffbezos : Thank you @SenSanders. We're excited about this, and also hope others will join in. http://twitter.com/... Derek Thompson / @dkthomp : Amazon's $15 minimum wage is a strategic masterstroke. It placates legislative critics on the verge of a possible HQ2 move to DC while putting pressure on the company's retail rivals http://www.theatlantic.com/... http://twitter.com/... Bernie Sanders / @berniesanders : Congratulations to the 350,000 Amazon workers who will now receive $15 an hour. Thank you to the @fightfor15 movement which is sweeping the country. Today is not only enormously important for the workers, it could well be a shot heard around the world. http://www.recode.net/... Matthew Yglesias / @mattyglesias : Actually this could be the most important part of Amazon's announcement: “Amazon will also start advocating for an increase to the federal minimum wage, the company said.” http://www.cnbc.com/... Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : Amazon, the country's 2nd biggest employer, has raised its minimum wage to $15 - Walmart, the top employer, raised its minimum wage to $11 in January - The federal minimum wage is $7.25 - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Stefan Constantine / @whatthebit : Amazon is killing two birds with one stone with this $15/hour wage hike. They're pleasing politicians. And they're making people who'd otherwise be working a retail job want to become an Amazon warehouse employee. $AMZN Bernie Sanders / @sensanders : I want to congratulate Jeff Bezos for doing exactly the right thing by raising the minimum wage at Amazon and Whole Foods to $15 an hour. Let me thank the hundreds of Amazon workers who contacted my office and the Fight for $15 movement, which has been leading this effort. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Hands down @JeffBezos is the mogul genius http://twitter.com/... Dan Rather / @danrather : This is a big deal and I don't think many people saw it coming. The battle for higher wages in America now has a strong influx of new momentum. https://money.cnn.com/... @6abc : Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for U.S. employees, including at Whole Foods http://6abc.com/... http://twitter.com/... Josh Eidelson / @josheidelson : Bernie Sanders thanked “hundreds” of Amazon employees who've been in touch with his office, and emphasized the impact of @fightfor15, saying “those guys deserve just enormous credit” for making $15 minimum wage no longer be seen as “an extreme idea, a fringe idea, a crazy idea” http://twitter.com/... Jamil Dakwar / @jdakwar : That's great! And while you're at it stop selling face surveillance technology to government entities which could have profound negative unintended consequences for Black people, undocumented immigrants and protesters. http://twitter.com/... Joshua Holland / @joshuahol : So many smart people said the Stop BEZOS Act was unworkable, and they were right on the substance. But even performative legislative proposals can create political pressure and result in positive real-world impacts. http://twitter.com/... Alex Kotch / @alexkotch : Now give them bathroom breaks http://twitter.com/... Marshall Kirkpatrick / @marshallk : Huge news for Amazon workers and working class people around the country. May the tech economy's abundance elevate human dignity & the freedom that comes with decreased scarcity for families http://www.techmeme.com/... Jim Waterson / @jimwaterson : Amazon is going to pay above the (real) living wage in the UK for all its staff, including part-time and temporary workers. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Jessica Smith / @jessicaasmith8 : .@SenSanders on @amazon raising minimum wage to $15/hr —> “I want to give credit where credit is due. I want to congratulate Mr. Bezos for doing exactly the right thing.” @davidoatkins : Remember all the mockery Bernie Sanders got for fighting with Amazon? There's more to progressive politics than just shouting at Trump, and Sanders is directly responsible today for a major wage victory against an enormously powerful employer. http://twitter.com/... @amazonnewsuk : The new Amazon £10.50 minimum wage for the London area and £9.50 for the rest of the UK will benefit more than 37,000 FT, PT, temp (including those hired by agencies), & seasonal employees https://blog.aboutamazon.co.uk/ ... Anand Giridharadas / @anandwrites : After the Bezos gift was announced, it was criticized by many, including me, for treating symptoms of a disease to which Amazon actively contributed. This move to be kinder by operational daylight, not just charitable moonlight — and to push for pro-worker policy — is laudable. http://twitter.com/... Karl Brophy / @karlbrophy : Smart. Increase wage, then lobby for the wage you've set as your minimum (and which you've worked out you can afford) to be set as the legal floor for all your competitors. Very smart. http://twitter.com/... Jay Carney / @jaycarney : Excited to announce the #Amazon15 minimum wage. If others join us & Congress raises the federal minimum wage, we could have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of Americans http://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This raise lands with political pressure attached: Bernie Sanders had made Amazon's pay a national issue via the Stop BEZOS Act, and alongside the increase Amazon says it will lobby Congress to lift the federal minimum wage — converting a criticism target into a policy advocate overnight. The company also raised UK wages to £10.50 in London and £9.50 elsewhere for roughly 37,000 staff, signaling this is a coordinated posture, not a US-only concession.
The move also set a floor that kept moving: within three years Amazon followed with a $1B+ investment lifting pay for over 500K warehouse workers, a hiring push at an average $17/hour, and by late 2022 an average starting wage above $19/hour — making the 2018 decision the first step of a recurring escalator rather than a one-time fix.
First-order effects
- More than 350,000 US workers — explicitly including part-time, temporary, and seasonal staff who are usually excluded from such floors — see pay rise to $15/hour next month.
- Amazon flips its political position: after being the named villain of Sanders' Stop BEZOS Act campaign, it now advocates for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.
Second-order effects
- Rival retailers and warehouses face a new benchmark set by the largest US hourly employer, forcing them to justify lower pay or match it to hold warehouse and delivery staff.
- The gap with gig work sharpens: concurrent reporting found half of US Uber drivers net under $10/hour after vehicle expenses, putting contractor-based models under direct comparison with Amazon's employee floor.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, front-line pay becomes a recurring competitive weapon rather than a fixed cost line — Amazon's own trajectory from $15 toward $19+/hour shows each raise resetting the market's expectations for logistics labor.
- A large employer lobbying for a higher federal minimum wage points toward regulation that codifies what scale employers have already priced in, squeezing smaller operators who lack Amazon's margin structure.
The trend: Front-line warehouse pay is turning into a periodically reset competitive benchmark, with the largest employer's wage announcements — not legislation — setting the de facto floor.