Amazon ’s announcement of a universal $ 15 - per - hour minimum pay for employees and temps stunned critics on Tuesday , bring in the megacorporation unlikely praise from progressives like SenatorBernie Sandersand 2018 U.S. congressional candidateAlexandria Ocasio - Cortez .
The move is , for Amazon ’s hundreds of thousands of worker , a net benefit — full full point . Tactically , it ’s also a brilliant play on the face of it intend to take the winding out of the sails of a farm pro - union contingent within the company , granary good will for a pot repeatedly accused of grueling and dangerous warehouse conditions , and press competition that may not have other revenue informant — like Amazon Web Services — to underwrite eminent pay . On one point , though , it seems the pay increase declaration backed Amazon into a street corner .
One of the fringe benefit Amazon touted for years when confront with its frustrated pay was its stock choice program , known as the Restricted Stock Unit ( RSU ) program , which all full - time storage warehouse workers were enrolled in and which vested after two long time of employment with the company . Whole Foods was renowned for a standardized employee addition - sharing program — something that , agree to current workers , disappeared once Amazon bought the grocery store chain in 2017 . But part of Amazon ’s blog post yesterday observe that :
We will be phase out the [ Restricted Stock Unit ] accord program for stock which would invest in 2020 and 2021 for this group of employees , supplant it with a direct stock purchase plan before the end of 2019 .
In cosmopolitan , the welfare of a direct stemma purchases , as contradict to pay for them on the open marketplace , is the shunning of agent fees . But beyond that general framework , Amazon does n’t expound further on the telescope of the replacement program .
dissolve the RSU curriculum for higher base pay seems like a fairish enough trade , if Whole Food ’s CEO John Mackey had n’t spell the following in a missive to all team members on September 12 ( emphasis his ):
We will produce an Amazon stock equity syllabus for all our Team Members with at least 6,000 service hours . Last spring , Amazon granted Restricted Stock Units ( RSUs ) to all Whole Foods leadership from Associate Store Team Leader level and up . We have heard from many Team Members who expressed disappointment about not providing fairness opportunities for all long - tenured Team Members as we had previously done with the Whole Foods Stock Option Plan . I need you to know that we are actively train a solution with Amazon that will address these concerns .
We contact out multiple meter to both Amazon and Whole intellectual nourishment for scuttlebutt and have yet to receive any elucidation on this apparent discrepancy in marching orders . Whatever the resolve , the company is effectively hamstrung : Either Amazon ’s directive supersedes Mackey ’s , or the company ends up with a two - tiered organization where storage warehouse doer are n’t offer stock but grocery computer storage workers are .
store options may be a major sticking period , both because these internal statements seem to stand in contradiction in terms and because gain - sharing is a major headache for organise Whole Foods employee . But the confusion and lack of reception are indicative of the rollout of these changes more generally .
Some Whole Foods workers are uncertain how the rising understructure wage will impress their store ’s labour budgets . Members of online assembly where Amazon workers meet seem equally confused by edge cause — like the sizing of a raise those already making $ 15 or more are entitle to . “ Not indisputable how it turned out for you but our [ process assistants ] and firmly crest T1 associates [ those who have work long enough to get all available raises ] got chicane out of pay from $ .25-$1 / hr+ . All hand was a complete diddly-squat show , ” a Redditor claim , name anger over the loss of stocks and variable - recompense pay , a bonus give to employees when a warehouse exceeds its monthly productiveness goals . ( Amazon confirmed VCP was being phased out . )
Amazon ’s $ 15 - per - time of day move is a step in the right counsel for America ’s second - large employer , but for personal organiser , it needs to be the first step of many .
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