Amazon is one of the main reasons, that many retail stores like sears, have been losing a lot of business, and could be potentially going bankrupt, due to many people preferring online shopping because of its convenience, which could also mean many of these retail workers losing their jobs. Many think that Amazon should be paying their employees more, due to the CEO of amazon, Mr. Bezo’s being a multibillionaire. Bernie Sanders is a supporter of the increase in minimum wage, and hopes that a lot of companies will follow in amazon’s footsteps.
The $15 wage increase by Amazon has led to many campaigns around the country, that are in favor for making $15 the federal wage. Although the unemployment rate in this country is relatively low at the moment, the amount of live able wages is also low. Amazon is one of the main online distributors so I think that decisions that the company takes can have structural affects. In the article, Bernie talked about how although the bill may not be passed to make $15 the minimum wage altogether, that a company like amazon making such a drastic move, will have something like a chain reaction. To me a structural factor in society, is something that has an effect on many people, and the structure of their lives. Amazon increasing minimum wage is so important because the 500,00 individuals, and now their families are going to be having wages where they can live a little more comfortably, and being that amazon is such a big contender, that could mean a positive impact on the economy.
Poverty is one of the biggest issues in this country, and it has been proven that it affects our economy negatively, in terms of taxes and funding for things like schools and other programs. Low wages are highly linked to poverty, and I think that the more that corporations decide to increase the minimum wage, I think more families will be impacted positively which will make for a better economy. One structural factor which is income inequality is a big issue because there is a large discrepancy between the rich, and the poor and what Amazon is doing I hope will help the issue a bit. In an article by, (Roberts, Povich, and Mather 2013.
) they talked about how that income gap is growing and many of the employers of these low wage jobs don’t take into account all of the expenses like day care, and car insurance when paying people. I think that this article is a good example to support the amazon article, because it shows how crucial it is for the poverty situation to dealt with in this country, and I think the amazon wage increase is a step in the right direction. The fact that about 60% of families are struggling financially in such a developed country shows that people are not getting paid enough for the work that they do and everything they have to go through which is why increase in minimum wage is so important. The article was really interesting, because I had no idea that what Amazon did would have such a powerful effect on people. I’m interested to see what happens next with the minimum wage situation, and what other company will be after Amazon.
