NEW YORK — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos challenged other retailers to raise wages and improve benefits for their employees, saying the competition will help everyone.
Bezos covered a wide range of topics in his annual letter to shareholders Thursday that was released on Twitter and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage,” Bezos wrote. “Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us.”
Late last year, Amazon jumped ahead of many rivals by raising its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $15 an hour. That pay hike was not universally praised by all workers, who said the company cut two employee benefits as well: monthly bonuses and the chance to own some of Amazon’s sky-rocketing stock.
Amazon did make some adjustments afterward to ensure workers were getting a raise.
Target and Walmart have increased starting wages for workers over the past few years as the job market grew hotter and people could find better pay and benefits elsewhere. Target Corp. said last week it would raise the minimum hourly wage by a dollar in June to $13 per hour, the third pay hike in less than two years. The Minneapolis retailer has said it plans to raise starting hourly wages to $15 by the end of 2020.
Walmart Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., raised its starting pay to $11 an hour in early 2018. In a statement emailed to The Associated Press Thursday, Walmart defended its record, noting it has increased starting wages by more than 50 percent in the last three years and currently has an average hourly total compensation of more than $17.50. It touted benefits like advanced job training and paid time off.
A top spokesman at the world’s largest retailer was also quick to mock Amazon’s challenge with its own jab on the issue of taxes.
“Hey retail competitors out there (You know who you are) How about paying your taxes?” Walmart’s Dan Bartlett tweeted. Bartlett shared an article that cited a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy which noted that Amazon will pay no federal income taxes for the second straight year.
