On Tuesday morning, Amazon announced that starting Nov. 1, it will pay all 350,000 of its U.S. employees no less than $15 an hour. The change will affect all full-time and temporary workers at its warehouses, in customer service, and at Whole Foods. "We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "We're excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us." Bezos is the world's wealthiest person.
The company said in exchange for the wage hike it will stop granting stock options to those workers, because "we've heard from our hourly fulfillment and customer service employees that they prefer the predictability and immediacy of cash to" restricted stock units. "The net effect of this change and the new higher cash compensation is significantly more total compensation for employees," Amazon said.
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