Amazon finally caved to pressure for a company-wide $15 minimum wage in November. At Whole Foods, the difference looks to be made up in cuts to scheduled hours.
According to reports by the Guardian, employees — who remained anonymous in fear of retaliation — have experienced “significant” decreases to their scheduled hours. In many cases, this negates or even supersedes the increased hourly rate.
Employees report a “30% reduction in hours per week for part-timers and about a 10% reduction for full-timers,” with one Illinois-based employee specifically saying that after the raise, his “hours went from 30 to 20 a week.”
He explained that “once the $15 minimum wage was enacted, part-time employee hours at their store were cut from an average of 30 to 21 hours a week, and full-time employees saw average hours reduced from 37.5 hours to 34.5 hours.”
He reportedly “provided schedules from 1 November to the end of January 2019,” demonstrating his claims and showing that the overall store budget thus remained about the same despite the wage increase.
The employee also said that workers were directed to complete tasks faster to stay in line with their new hours, and an internal e-mail from a member of management confirmed that the decision was a “direct result of guidance from our regional team.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.