Amazon\u2019s minimum wage is now $15 per hour. CEO Jeff Bezos says the change is all about \u201cdoing the right thing,\u201d but he also wants government to mandate the company\u2019s new minimum wage to his competitors. I questioned his motives in my last post, but a colleague vehemently disagreed. She insisted that \u201ccompanies need to be responsive to social change and their stated intentions should be taken at face value.\u201d I don\u2019t think she is seeing the big picture.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Seattle city council unanimously passed a measure requiring companies with revenues in excess of $20 million to pay an annual\u00a0$275 tax per employee to fund \u201caffordable housing\u201d efforts. Amazon (and other large companies) vigorously opposed the tax and the council rescinded it the following month. Supporters assumed that companies like Amazon would simply comply, lest they be scorned for condoning homelessness. They were wrong, and Amazon was justified in its response. Bezos later tweeted a $2 billion pledge to fight homelessness by supporting efforts by nonprofits, not the city\u2019s tax scheme.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it appears contradictory that Bezos did not<\/em> trust Seattle\u2019s local government\u2019s ability to use tax funds properly to address the homeless problem, but does<\/em> trust government to fight poverty by mandating a higher minimum wage. Indeed, Bezos is correct not to oppose Seattle\u2019s money grab to subsidize housing. Private sector efforts are much more effective at combatting the problem. If you need evidence, consider the longstanding rent control debacle in New York.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not convinced Bezos really thinks that really thinks a higher (government-mandated) minimum wage will improve conditions for those in poverty. Most minimum wage workers aren\u2019t the primary breadwinners in their families anyway, and requiring employers to pay above-market wages encourages them to hire fewer workers. But Bezos has two reasons to campaign for a higher (government) minimum wage. It\u2019s a virtue signal that Amazon \u201creally cares\u201d about the poor, and it would also create a burden to current and potential competitors by requiring them to match Amazon\u2019s pay level.<\/p>\n The same media pundits who criticize \u201cbig oil\u201d for \u201cdeceiving\u201d the public about climate change seem willing to accept Amazon\u2019s support for an increase in the federal minimum wage without questioning the motives. They should apply a simple standard. Amazon and other firms should be permitted to set wages and make other strategic decisions without government interference, but they should be criticized when they lobby for government intervention that restricts competitors from doing the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amazon\u2019s minimum wage is now $15 per hour. CEO Jeff Bezos says the change is all about \u201cdoing the right thing,\u201d but he also wants government to mandate the company\u2019s new minimum wage to his competitors. I questioned his motives in my last post, but a colleague vehemently disagreed. She insisted that \u201ccompanies need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}