Here's some good news for a lot of people. Jeff Bezos announced the wage hike this morning:
Amazon will pay all of its U.S. employees a minimum of $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The retail giant, run by the world's richest man, was criticized earlier this year after revealing its workers' median pay was $28,446.
Amazon says the new rate will go into effect on Nov. 1, covering all of its full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees in the U.S.
"We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead," said Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, as the company announced the new pay scale Tuesday. "We're excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us."
Amazon is one of the nation's largest employers, second only to Walmart, so this wage increase should have a positive ripple effect. The increase will also apply to Whole Foods employees.
The company will also lobby Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.
