After facing political pressure Amazon gave in and enacted a minimum wage of $15 an hour to their employees. The higher wage was supposed to be extremely helpful to their workers but it ended up having a negative impact.
Amazon-owned Whole Foods has seen the “unexpected” impact firsthand. As the Guardian reports:
All Whole Foods employees paid less than $15 an hour saw their wages increase to at least that, while all other team members received a $1 an hour wage increase and team leaders received a $2 an hour increase.
But since the wage increase, Whole Food employees have told the Guardian that they have experienced widespread cuts that have reduced schedule shifts across many stores, often negating wage gains for employees.
Amazon wasn’t forced to adopt this new wage policy, they acted voluntarily. But there’s a lesson proponents of the $15/hr government enforced minimum wage can learn from their decision.
Take a look at the video to find out what that lesson is.