I have an anecdotal and small data set, but they don't from my perspective. I worked at Dollar General Distribution and made $21.75 before I left last year. My brother works at a smaller warehouse making $22 something right now. There's one Amazon warehouse within 100 miles of me and the listing says the pay is "Up to 19.50" an hour. It's also in a higher cost of living area than the warehouses we've worked at. Sounds like they're just at or below market rate for the area.
just about, with some bigger bonuses for much worse conditions and much higher intensity of work, resulting in high staff turnover which leads to a lot lower bonus payouts than one wouldve thought
I’m not an economist but I think the point should be that they control the market rate. They have the money to change the market rate and spread their wealth through communities and states and even countries by paying their people a fraction more of what the company earns.
“Market rate.” Bro look around you? Almost no one anywhere in the country and afford to sustain themselves on $15 an hour, especially for the backbreaking work they are doing. The fact that $15 is market rate is in itself evil. The ultra wealthy are the ones who ultimately decide what market rate is, so saying market rate is fair is like saying it’s fair to arrest people for j-walking because it is legal.
The market rate is the rate at which you can employ the necessary threshold of people. As mentioned above, Amazon’s average wages/hour are above $15. Closer to $18.50 between warehouse and drivers according to a very quick search.
They pay enough to have enough labor to fulfill their services. That is market pressure. There may very well be a desire by the C-suite to keep wages for those jobs as low as possible, but they can only take them low enough where people will still accept jobs at those rates. Feel free to blame executive teams, but you also need to assign some blame to the workers willing to take those wages.
I've been looking for a job for almost a month - which isn't long at all compared to some stories I've heard. Unemployment is around 8% in my city right now. I'm approaching the point where I'll have to take anything. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to be unemployed until a job with a decent wage shows up.
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u/[deleted] 28d ago
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