Rent and maybe a steak: How Amazon workers will spend that $15 an hour
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
SAN MARCOS, Texas — Workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center here arrived at work Tuesday to a different company — one that had just bumped its the minimum hourly wage to $15 per hour.
“What’s not to like?” said Debbie Newby, 60, as she waited in a bus shelter in the Amazon parking lot for her husband to pick her up.
Newby, who started with Amazon in October 2016, said she is a “Tier 3” worker, so she was already making more than the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. But she also considers herself “one of the lucky ones” because she has Amazon stock. New employees received three shares, but that will end with the $15 an hour minimum wage they will now be offered.
“More people wanted money now,” Newby said. “With the stock, you have to be with them two years to reap that reward.”
She said her pay will go up to $16.50 an hour because there were wage increases across the board.
Amazon’s move Tuesday drew strong praise from Sanders and other advocates for raising the national minimum wage.
“Amazon is such a huge presence,” said Paul Sonn, state policy director at the National Employment Law Project, a labor advocacy group. “It puts pressure on other low-wage chains, especially Walmart, to join them.”
“It’s also significant for Amazon to say they’ll push for long-overdue actions on the federal minimum wage,” Sonn said.
Kerry Dobbs, 69, said it was a “good, good raise,” bringing him to $13.65 an hour doing inventory control.
Another worker, Calvin Howell, 53, said the $15 minimum wage “will make a big impact on our lives” in the short term, which could in turn improve the community of San Marcos, a city of around 61,000 between Austin and San Antonio.
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