Parker: Ignore Amazon’s Self-Serving Calls to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

Elaine Parker of Job Creators Network writes for Fox News that Amazon’s decision to not only raise its own minimum wage but to lobby the government to raise the federal minimum wage as well will have negative consequences for entry level employees and small businesses:

Amazon bowed to political pressure Tuesday and raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour for its 250,000 U.S. employees and 100,000 seasonal workers, effective Nov. 1.

The online giant had been on the receiving end of the ire of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for not paying some of its employees enough money to protect taxpayers from subsidizing them through social programs. Left unsaid, of course, was that this subsidy would be even bigger if it weren’t for the employment opportunities offered by Amazon.

While the news that it has approved a $15 minimum wage will give Amazon some good PR, it was Amazon’s other reveal made in conjunction with this announcement that is concerning for entry-level jobseekers and small businesses across the country. Amazon says it will “work with policymakers in Washington, D.C., to advocate for a higher federal minimum wage.”

Read the rest of the editorial here.