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Struggling Workers Found Sleeping In Tents Behind Amazon's Warehouse (thecourier.co.uk)
"At least three tents have been spotted in woodland beside the online retail giant's base," reports a Scottish newspaper -- hidden behind trees, but within sight of Amazon's warehouse, and right next to a busy highway. An anonymous reader writes:
Despite Scotland's "bitterly cold winter nights" -- with lows in the 30s -- the tent "was easier and cheaper than commuting from his home," one Amazon worker told the Courier. (Though yesterday someone stole all of his camping equipment.) Amazon charges its employees for shuttle service to the fulfillment center, which "swallows up a lot of the weekly wage," one political party leader told the Courier, "forcing people to seek ever more desperate ways of making work pay.
"Amazon should be ashamed that they pay their workers so little that they have to camp out in the dead of winter to make ends meet..." he continued. "They pay a small amount of tax and received millions of pounds from the Scottish National Party Government, so the least they should do is pay the proper living wage." Though the newspaper reports that holiday shopping has created 4,000 temporary jobs in the small town of Dunfermline, "The company came under fire last month from local activists who claimed that agency workers are working up to 60 hours per week for little more than the minimum wage and are harshly treated."
Amazon responded, "The safety and well-being of our permanent and temporary associates is our number one priority."
"Amazon should be ashamed that they pay their workers so little that they have to camp out in the dead of winter to make ends meet..." he continued. "They pay a small amount of tax and received millions of pounds from the Scottish National Party Government, so the least they should do is pay the proper living wage." Though the newspaper reports that holiday shopping has created 4,000 temporary jobs in the small town of Dunfermline, "The company came under fire last month from local activists who claimed that agency workers are working up to 60 hours per week for little more than the minimum wage and are harshly treated."
Amazon responded, "The safety and well-being of our permanent and temporary associates is our number one priority."
The highest minimum wage in Scotland is 7.20/hour is you are 25 or over, whereas the Living Wage is 8.25/hour.
For the sake of argument let's say these folks are being paid the Living Wage. 8.25 X 60 = 495. If you get paid every other week that is 990 gross pay.
Let's assume these people are working full-time so 26 paychecks X 990 = 25,740. Based on this tax rate guide that means they pay a 20% tax on their wages. However, they get the first 10,600 as a personal allowance. So, 20% of 15,140 (25,740-10,600) = 3,028. Subtracting everything out leaves 12,112. Add in the 10,600 and you get 22,712 to live on (assuming my math is correct).
All of the above is assuming Amazon uses the highest possible minimum wage rate. If they use the lower value of 7.20 then the take home pay gets even smaller. Which now brings us to conclusion: either the prices for a flat in Scotland are exceptionally low, as is everything else, or trying to live on a minimum wage in Scotland is nowhere near a comfortable living. At 500/month, rent will consume 26.4% of your earnings.
Once you start adding in food, clothes, any form of entertainment (alcohol most likely), not to mention electricity, heating (if separate from electricity), your monthly phone bill, transportation costs and so on, you're not really left with much to be considered comfortable.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
If the conditions are that bad, QUIT, go somewhere else! "But there isn't anything else"...and that's Amazon's fault?
Probably exactly the same given that it's repeatedly been demonstrated that beyond being comfortable, salary is a really terrible motivator for job performance or job satisfaction.
I've met a lot of people that have trouble wrapping their head around how I feel about unions.
Unions are a glorious thing that have helped a lot of workers. I wish I had an engineers union like the Germans do that fight for all workers in it.
The UAW one of the most corrupt, bloated, useless organizations I've ever had to deal with.
Cut executive salaries in half, put the savings in your hypothetical fund, and I bet you'll find it has plenty of money.
Amazon has a salary cap. No one makes more than ~$180k in salary. Perhaps you wanted a different word? In total executive compensation, the CEO made 1.6M, and one other guy made $230k. So try doing the research next time. http://finance.yahoo.com/quote...
Bezos is vastly wealthy because he founded the company and owns a non-trivial percentage of the stock. The other executives are no doubt also worth many millions, for the same reason - they held on to early stock grants. Amazons average profit per employee is ~$2600. Of course, their gross profit is much higher, but they spend most of it hiring more people, and buying servers.
All of this is public record. But you seem to prefer ignorance.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.