Today in “good things happen when the free market works, despite the fact that we’re facing an existential global threat” news…
Amazon workers are getting a raise due to a rise in demand for the company’s products. Imagine that – it’s almost like allowing the market to work can bring workers benefits. Someone alert the Democratic Socialists.
Amazon made the announcement late last week that it’s going to be doubling its hourly wages for associates that are working overtime in the company’s U.S. warehouses as demand spikes as a result of the growing nationwide coronavirus lockdowns.
The company told CNBC: “All hourly associates working in the U.S. Ops network will receive double their regular hourly rate for every overtime hour worked in a workweek. This temporary increased overtime pay is effective March 15, 2020, and will continue through May 9, 2020.”
Amazon said that workers are eligible to receive the overtime after passing 40 hours in a week. On Monday, Amazon announced it would be hiking its hourly rate for associates from $15 to $17 until the end of April. The company also said it was going on hiring binge, looking to bring on 100,000 warehouse and delivery worker to meet its surge in demand.
Amazon has encouraged workers who have been laid off or furloughed elsewhere to apply for jobs: “We want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.”
About one week ago, Amazon began to warn that it was running out of stock on some popular household items due to dramatic increases in demand. The company also said it would provide employees up to two weeks of pay if they were diagnosed with coronavirus.
We wonder if the employees who just saw their pay hiked dramatically – and those who just found a new job with Amazon after being laid off else – are complaining about the fact that Jeff Bezos is a billionaire.
Probably not.
