Amazon Raises Minimum Wage for 500,000 Workers

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[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Amazon announced on the 28th (local time) that it will raise the wages of more than 500,000 workers at its U.S. operations by a minimum of 50 cents and up to 3 dollars per hour.

Dashi Henry, Amazon's Vice President of Global Human Resources, stated in a blog post that "we will invest over 1 billion dollars (approximately 1.1062 trillion KRW) to increase the wages of workers in the U.S. by 50 cents to up to 3 dollars per hour."

Vice President Henry explained that this wage increase is intended to encourage hiring at tens of thousands of workplaces across the U.S., and noted that Amazon had hired hundreds of thousands of workers last year in response to the surge in online orders due to COVID-19.

CNN described this move as following the unionization vote by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), interpreting it as a decision by Amazon?known for its no-union management policy?to appease employees.

Earlier, on the 9th, 3,215 employees at Amazon's logistics warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, held a vote on establishing a union under the RWDSU, with 70.9% (1,789 votes) opposing the union formation, resulting in the failure of the unionization attempt.

The current minimum hourly wage at Amazon's U.S. operations is 15 dollars, and more than half of Amazon's total U.S. workforce (approximately 950,000 employees) will benefit from this wage increase.

CNN reported that although Amazon plans to raise wages for 500,000 workers, it is not officially increasing the minimum wage of 15 dollars per hour.

With the Biden administration finalizing a plan to raise the federal minimum wage to 15 dollars per hour, CNN reported that this move is intended to keep pace with major U.S. offline retailers such as Costco, which raised its minimum wage to 16 dollars following Walmart.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.