here's an anecdote. My kid is 19. He finished high school but is otherwise unskilled. My kid got hired at Amazon to work in a fulfillment center, paying $15/hr for a 40 hr/wk shift. The first three months, my son would drive the 21 miles to get there, clock in, and then get sent home 20 minutes in to the shift because there were "too many people" in the building... but they were still hiring. Then they started calling him before his shift and telling him they were already at capacity. He was getting 2-10 hours per week. He got paperwork in the mail about health benefits, but never could get enough hours to qualify. . then he heard about flex time. now he logs in to an app every day and picks what shifts he wants. He can have all the shifts he wants. He put in almost 40 last week. He could theoretically work as much as he wants. Many of those shifts offer an extra $3-5 per hour. but as a flex employee, he's ineligible for benefits. . My kid mentioned that they have some digital signs up that show employee communications. One of the employee signs shows things that have employees have suggested(get some fans, it's too hot, it's too cold, etc). He said every day for weeks there were some complaints about wages. . So in the plus column, Amazon is paying 25% higher than our state's minimum wage. In the minus column, they're a totally disorganized organization that pays just enough to keep people quiet, and seemingly rewards people for not getting additional benefits.
So funny story. I've got six months of payroll reports open in front of me right now. It cost me 11 grand to pay my employees 95 grand and I am paying zero benefits. The shittiest Blue Shield plan Costco can find me will be 20 grand on top of that. In other words, to pay $15 an hour (for example) with no benefits costs me $1.73 an hour. To pay $15 an hour with benefits? Gonna cost me $4.85 an hour. WA has no state income tax. Amazon is coming out ahead paying your son $3-5 extra an hour to not give him benefits, even though your son is the cheapest demographic on earth to insure.
I don't understand your point. My argument is that there are costs associated with paying wages, not that I begrudge those costs. The only reason I have payroll reports open in front of me is I'm meeting with accountants tomorrow to figure out a way to pay benefits and retirement when our income is from medicaid and insurance. How, exactly, am I the bad guy here?
You aren’t, I’m just saying I’m jealous that you are rolling in mad government money. The fact that you are paying 11k of 94k in wages is a testament to how misalocated the stimulus is but also to being the in class. Or did I misunderstand your point and that 11 is payroll taxes? I
LOL that'd be dope AF No. Federal and state governments charge us eleven thousand dollars in order to pay our employees ninety five thousand dollars, for a total expense to us of one hundred six thousand dollars. That ninety five thousand dollars, of course, is subject to taxes the employees must pay the federal and state government. You're absolutely right in that corporations are receiving thunderous amounts of money. We needed to attest to the fact that our business has been "impacted" by COVID (which it most certainly has) in order to get 2 1/2 months of payroll and an additional $5k grant. HHS also publicized that they had money, too - if you can demonstrate that you serve a properly medicaid-heavy clientele in a properly medicaid-heavy neighborhood they will grant up to 2% of patient revenue. That worked out to like $11k. Looking at it a little more closely, the PPP money worked out to be a little less than the government would have paid out in unemployment benefits. As good and proper capitalists, we did not immediately turn around and give everybody bonuses. Well, we did. Just not for the whole thing. 'cuz if a patient comes in and gives us COVID it'll cost at least that much to shut down. It seems like a fuckload of money. And then you start adding up how much you stand to lose.The fact that you are paying 11k of 94k in wages is a testament to how misalocated the stimulus is but also to being the in class.
I biked to the dealership today to pick up my car after service. On the way back, a radio drama came on, “Jade For Hire”, a noir about union organizing at “Jamazon.com.” “You can get everything at Jamazon.com, except respect for the worker. They never seemed to have that in stock.” The CEO is chided for greed, as usual. After forty years since Phil Donahue asked, has anyone found a better alternative?
What were you doing at age 19? I had a job in a lighting store, which involved a lot of time in a hot warehouse. No health benefits, and I doubt the pay was anything close to the equivalent of $15 an hour. It was pocket money and work experience, and now I can install a ceiling fan. Many of those shifts offer an extra $3-5 per hour. This isn't for everyone, but it sounds like a dream job for a 19 year old. People have to make decisions for themselves, and it is not Amazon's role to decide if the opportunity they offer is the best fit from an employee's perspective. Does Amazon care about your kid's health? Sure they do, they say so right on the benefits page! Saying they care but not really doing anything about it is the same way the rest of us care about Amazon employees. My employer does not provide health benefits for me. He told me he doesn't want to deal with the paperwork and would rather just give me the cash value of the health plan. I wouldn't have taken the job if I couldn't get health insurance elsewhere. Employers worry about the bottom line, the total cost of employee compensation, whatever form it takes. Providing health benefits for flex employees would necessarily reduce salary, or compensation on some other dimension.now he logs in to an app every day and picks what shifts he wants. He can have all the shifts he wants. He put in almost 40 last week. He could theoretically work as much as he wants.
Amazon cares🟉 about your health and well-being, both on and off the job.
🟉benefits on this page apply to regular, full-time employees
I'm all about my kid having a tough job. And frankly, I can't believe they're paying that much to do what he does. The bizarre, and seemingly underhanded thing they're doing, is not giving scheduled workers the hours they should, but rather giving those hours to people who are on flex time. and that's a much longer, stranger story for another day.What were you doing at age 19?
Agreed, promising and not delivering hours is bad, and will drive workers away, just as customers will move elsewhere if they don't get their packages. I trust your kid didn't work 20-minute shifts regularly for three months before finding another option. I looked into the Flex app for deliveries. I thought I could bring my kid along and give him a look at the "last mile", after we toured the FC. There were stories of people who reserved a work block but only got a few packages to deliver, so they got full pay for a tiny amount of work. Other stories described getting a delivery assignment that was impossible to deliver in the expected amount of time. Predictability and regularity of work is a benefit that costs Amazon to provide, and that money has to come from somewhere. Everything is a tradeoff. Looking forward to seeing your autobiography, once the eleven kids have grown up!