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Amazon’s warehouse pay-rate has left some workers homeless and struggling

  • Over 4,000 employees working for e-commerce giant Amazon in nine states are on food stamps – fewer than only Walmart, McDonald’s and two dollar-store chains
  • Risking infection while toiling in a crowded warehouse for US$15 an hour has many Amazon workers asking if they are getting short-changed

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Workers prepare customer orders for dispatch as they work around goods stored inside an Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough, central England, on November 15, 2017. Photo: AFP
Bloomberg
Amazon job ads are everywhere. Plastered on city buses, displayed on career websites, slotted between songs on classic rock stations. They promise a quick start, US$15 an hour and health insurance. In recent weeks, America’s second-largest employer has rolled out videos featuring happy package handlers wearing masks, a pandemic-era twist on its annual holiday season hiring spree.

Amazon’s object is to persuade potential recruits that there’s no better place to work.

The reality is less rosy. Many Amazon warehouse employees struggle to pay the bills, and more than 4,000 employees are on food stamps in nine states studied by the US Government Accountability Office. Only Walmart, McDonald’s and two dollar-store chains have more workers requiring such help, according to the report, which said 70 per cent of recipients work full-time.

As Amazon opens US warehouses at the rate of about one a day, it is transforming the logistics industry from a career destination with the promise of middle-class wages into entry-level work that is just a notch above being a burger flipper or convenience store cashier. 

Union workers who make comfortable livelihoods driving delivery trucks and packing boxes consider Amazon an existential threat. While labour tensions have simmered for years, the stakes have risen sharply amid the pandemic, which prompted Amazon to hire more than 250,000 people to keep up with surging demand from homebound shoppers. Risking infection while toiling in a crowded warehouse for US$15 an hour has many Amazon workers asking if they are getting short-changed.

A Bloomberg analysis of government labour statistics reveals that in community after community where Amazon sets up shop, warehouse wages tend to fall. In 68 counties where Amazon has opened one of its largest facilities, average industry compensation slips by more than 6 per cent during the facility’s first two years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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