Amazon has to pay wages ( to hire)
- Thread starter HJCane
- Start date
They do damage to the small businesses in the area that Amazon is located in. Small businesses lose their employees to the wages Amazon is paying leaving them in trouble. Tough hiring market as is, Amazon comes in and makes it worse. It's tough to complain about higher wages paid and complain about our free market capitalistic society which we fight for, however there is no escaping facts when a behemoth hires a volume of people out of a local area at much higher wages.
I'm President of my Condo Board high end luxury property. Units start 1 million +. My other Board members wanted to raise all hourly staff to minimum $15 per hour it caused a big disagreement. They rationalize this by telling me what Walmart is paying and I say, let them go work at Walmart. They won't leave to work at Walmart. My average valet attendent has been with us 7-8 years because we pay well (for the position) and we treat them with respect. The other Board members didn't understand the concept that we can't and won't compete with Walmart or Amazon etc.....
Respect and median pay wages won't pay their bills. You will have higher than usual turnover with these personnel. We are in unusual times. Can't blame them, they have kids, wives and bills. Loyalty will only go so far. Ig you look at what a couple of buks raise per hour per the number of units, it may be worth a measly assessment to keep these people.
We pay the HIGHEST hourly wage of any property I checked with owner of valet company and housekeeping. Valet gets cash tips also. I have never stopped anyone from leaving to better their lives. I applaud anyone who does that. Worth mentioning we just jacked them all up minimum 10-15% for 2022 plus they all get 1000's of $ for Christmas as we have a holiday fund that the owners give generously too + private christmas gifts.
Turnover in service industries is very high with many of these people looking and getting better wages and benefits outside of their prior work. The minimum wage increases and lack of willing to work labor is causing wage creep in service industries. It's a strong employee market currently when the likes of Amazon are paying 18- 19 / hr., Target@ 15/ hr, Burger King reaching 15/ hr etc, all have benefits. Many other companies are getting to a 15/ hr average. A couple of service industry businesses such as Janitorial and Security will end up paying in Florida a minimum of 15/ hr way ahead of the minimum wage increases required over the next 4 years. 15/hr. Is already a reality.
Then what? Tell me this; Why would I pay the person who's been here 5 years the same as the person 5 months? Why would I pay the person who does a great job the same as the lazy person? What happens after $15 we go to 16? 18? Maybe we should pay housekeepers 21?
I get it and agree that it is not fair, however the decision becomes whether you take the chance of your people leaving for better pay or bite the bullet and keep up with competition. What is happening now are radical wage changes at traditionally lower paying jobs creating havoc with budgets that were put together without expecting these wage shifts. Think about the companies with contracts that are experiencing these wage issues and are locked in for a year. Look what they are facing. Tremendous overtime due to people leaving for better wages and staffing requirements to fulfill contracts. It's bad out there.
