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Amazon sets minimum pay to $15/hr in US, including contingents

Online retail giant Amazon yesterday announced it will increase its hourly minimum wage to $15 for all employees across the US, effective Nov. 1. This includes full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, as well as temporary employees hired by agencies.

The new minimum wage will affect more than 250,000 Amazon employees, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal holiday employees the company plans to hire nationwide this year. All of Amazon’s hourly operations and customer service employees who already make $15 will also see an increase.

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

The company also stated its public policy team will also begin advocating for an increase in the federal minimum wage.

By way of comparison, Walmart’s minimum wage is $11 an hour and Target aims to achieve $15 an hour by 2020, Fortune reported. Amazon has recently been targeted over its pay by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who last month introduced legislation that would require companies that don’t pay a living wage to reimburse tax authorities for the federal benefits paid out to their low-wage workers.

Amazon counts more than 575,000 employees worldwide.

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