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Amazon Responds to Heat With $15 Minimum Hourly Wage Announcement

Amazon said it’s bumping its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all 250,000-plus full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees in the U.S., effective Nov 1, and it will lobby for a hike in the federal minimum wage, locked at…

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$7.25 for nearly a decade. Amazon has come under fire from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, who last month co-wrote with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act, which would require compensation to the federal government from companies whose employees have to rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other federal assistance. In a Tuesday statement, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said: “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead.” Bezos, whose net worth recently passed $150 billion according to reports, nudged "competitors and other large employers to join us.” In March, Target announced a dollar bump in the minimum wage to $12 an hour (see 1803060025), saying the rate would extend to $15 an hour by 2020. Walmart said in January, it was raising its minimum wage to $11 an hour.