Jeff Bezos and the Amazon staff pay offer

There is one enormous Amazon warehouse and packing centre in Tilbury, Essex, UK.
Inflation is now around 10% currently.
They work 6 days à week on minimum wage of around 10.50 GBP per hour.
Jeff Bezos runs an international company, , managés to skip taxation to à large degree and is personally estimated to be worth around 250 billion pounds.
The pickers and packers have been offered a 35 Pence per hour pay rise.
What do you think

 

Yea they run a warehouse here that staffs for 10 hours 6 days a week here in the states too for minimum wage $15 an hr.

I say grind while ur young, so you don't have to work hard when you get older. Factory work usually isn't fun.

Without min wage, it could be much much lower...they don't even hire in person, it's all online. So literally any able body qualifies. I'm sure they even hire low risk felons...so not a bad gig for some.

 

Sounds normal for minimum wage jobs.

 

Hard to judge without knowing the cost of living in GB compared to the US.

 

related older thread: Harsh work conditions in Amazon workplaces

 

It's similar. The cost of living might even be a bit higher.

 

My question would be, is the pay comparable based on the job market there?

Another question would be, is Amazon being targeted because Bezo is rich and Amazon is successful? If so, I really don't have much sympathy for the workers.

 

Their current pay in UK is around $12.50 US and would go to $13.10 US. The average Amazon worker pay in the US is $16.10. I am guessing the insurance costs for an american worker would put them taking home less than for a British worker with your NHS

 

Exactly who forced these people to take these jobs?
Who’s forcing these people to stay on in such horrible places?
why not just flip burgers for 15 GBP?

 

You have to understand market forces and equilibrium.
There may be tens of thousands of other options, but all of those options are scarcely better than the other.
(And if there are somewhat better options, they can be really difficult to find)

If I was a dictator and put you in prison and told you you could go to any prison in my country you wanted, and if you changed your mind at any time, that was okay too, then how would you feel if I came and told you "It's not that bad, you don't have to be here if you don't want."

 

Bezo isn't responsible for taxation on Amazon corporation.

 

What I think is the the law of supply and demand provides the proper basis for compensation. That and of course compliance with labor laws and regulations.

What Jeff Bezos is worth or his tax situation is really not relavant to the discussion. He is running a business based on the law of supply and demand in a free market economy.

 

Except that 35 Pence per hour is spectacularly under the rate of inflation for those already working 10 hours à day for minimum wage and can't afford to heat their homes.
There is hard capitalism, and there is benificent capitalism. If the latter is not possible in these times then something is seriously wrong with it.
Bezos has profited hugely from tax manipulation on an immoral scale even by capitalist standards. If this were politics it would be called tyranny.

 

I think that life is too short and anyone who's in a job they don't like, or they feel they ain't getting paid enough, then quit, go and do what they like doing.

 

Many people don't have that luxury.
When it costs more to get to work and you end up with less money in your pocket, you don't have a choice.

 

Workers that are unhappy about their work conditions should do what they can to elevate their value, like getting educated for better jobs.
It's a little shocking how, in at least parts of the US, there are many openings for really good paying jobs. One just needs to put in the work and acquire some skills.
There are of truck drivers, welders, electricians, plumbers, hvac technicians, industrial maintenance, etc.

 

I don't care for Bezos, so I don't patronize Amazon.

 

This is the context in Tilbury.
The UK is currently suffering the highest rate rise for energy on record. The cost of gas is due to triple in the coming year and thr country has little or no réserves.
Food bills and pétrol are record high.
Rents are raising steeply due to lack of affordable housing..
People are holding down three jobs and dépend on free school meals for their children.
Post covid when waves stagnated, there are now rail strikes, bus strikes and protected goods transport strikes.
Inflation is around 10% and set to go up.
These Amazon workers work 10 hours à day under strict surveillance and are offered 36 PENCE an hour wage rise by à company whose owner is worth approximately 200 billion pounds and making more profit per hour than almost any other business...except energy companies.
Now I am not adverse to capitalism but I am also in favour of fairness and generosity in a crisis.
The UK has had a conservative govt now for 12 years and while it couldn't prevent covid or Ukraine , has by various tax policies, allowed the rich to profit ...including Russian oligarchs, and the poor to struggle, simply rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.
Some sense of fair play objects to this. All of it. Amazon doesnt need to deny it's employees à decent wage. Much of the profits have been made on paying pitiful wages but the situation now is untenable.
I have always thought workers in many large companies should be offered shares as part of their wages. They can then sell them when they need the money.

 

I admire his entreprise but not the way he doges taxes in individual countries. He hides sales by creating a complex trail of supply and demand although the EU has made some inroads into tracking them.
As in any economic system there are positives and négatives. The loopholes in capitalism that can be exploiter by some are not IMO acceptable.

 

I wasn't trying to downplay the situation, but my business is training people to elevate their employment and, in the US, there is an enormous shortage of skilled labor.
Hope things improve for your country soon.
I completely agree that the corporate leaders are too stingy. It's a tricky issue to deal with though.

 

Well here we have it. The Marxist comment I was waiting for. Someone providing goods and services that people want in a free market economy is immoral for "profiting hugely." You mention capitalist standards as some sort of immorality. The government creates inflation and then people like Bezos are expected to pay for it out of "fairness." Have you ever started a business, created jpbs., provided goods and services that people want and need, run a business, invested your own capital, risked your own capital to create a "fair" business. And of course the answer is no. You just sit on the sidelines bashing people who have.

The fair system set up by Communists.

 

You know, there are times when I despair of individual ability to "get it".
Yes I have bern intimately involved in sitting up and running two businesses.
However capitalism does not include grinding down your employees at à time of national flippng emergency.
Toddle off and read the other posts in this thread about Amazon. You might learn something.
And don't write what I didn't say. Capitalism is not immoral. But it should be flexible enough to provide à decent living for those involved in it. Capitalism at the cost of beggaring the employees is tantamount to abuse.
No I do not approve of orher systems. And stop labelling me. I have had just about enough of poor readers who play gotcha.
Back off.

 

Thanks for the info. I was wondering has brexit come into play in all of this? I remember when everyone was talking about brexit there were epectations of higher prices and shortages but now we almost never hear about brexit on this side of the Atlantic.

 

Brexot isn't mentioned in the UK either much. Most of the results have been hidden behind Covid and Ukraine, and since 2016 to mention Brexit in anything but positive terms is like discussing your cancer in public. Not to mention the current government is all pro Brexit.
I suspect that there is a lot that is not being exposed to the public about its effets and of course the Northern Ireland trade issue still isnt settled. At the moment no one is apportioning blame but I suspect some issues are hidden under the surface.

 

Firstly, I do not believe you ever started a business that involved investing/riskling your capital and achieving success in the free market. Your posts over time in no way reflect the awareness that one would gain by starting and running a business.

I will not as you say "toddle off" -- I will continue to respond to left wing claims and comments. If you have any intellectual honesty you will be able to have a well reasoned discussion with people who disagree with you. If not, well there it is.

I doubt that I will learn something about Amazon by reading anything in this thread. As a young man I did hard physical construction work in Texas (where it was effing hot) and then worked mid night shift in a factory that made printed circuit boards. The link below is where I worked. I am pretty sure the working conditions were a lot worse than what people currently experience at Amazon. After working 3rd shift I attended a community college during the day learning computer programming (as it was called then) and then got some sleep in the evening. Yes, the job sucked. But it enabled me to go to college. I neither received nor expected a government handout. Nor did I expect to work in a factory for my entire life. I made personal decisions that allowed me to move forward with my life. But at a young age I was happy to have an industrial factory job so as to be able to gain an education. In other words I took responsibility for my life.

Your comments about what capitalism should be, ignore the the reality of competing in a free market. So I can only conclude you do not believe in a free market.

Where I worked:
https://www.homefacts.com/environme...uperfund-Trans-Circuits-Inc-Vad044820652.html