Thread by @cfishman

Dramatic shift in Amazon's influence:

The company is raising wages for workers across U.S.

To compete, to hang to talent, other companies — family-owned, but also giants — are also raising wages.

Important new insight in this WSJ story.

(Free below.)
wsj.com/articles/amazo…

2/ Amazon has had a reputation for decades as a challenging place to work — reasonable, if not great, wages.

But a relentless work pace, monitored, logged, and then judged employee by employee.

But this WSJ analysis says 'The Amazon Effect' is turning positive.

3/ Here's the thing:

If Amazon (#2 largest employer in country) raises wages, other business, including small business, will squawk that they can't compete with the behemoth.

But if Amazon corrodes wages — do those employers pay up above AMZN?

Not typically. Pay down, in fact.

4/ You can't both criticize companies like Amazon & Walmart for paying poorly, then criticize them for paying well.

But that's what will happen.

This WSJ analysis—1st of its kind I've seen—is big news & good news.

Happy to see a big employer set a *high* workplace standard.

5/ I wrote 'The Wal-Mart Effect,' about the wide impact of Walmart on every corner of the U.S. economy.

At that time, I calculated that WMT could raise the price of every item it sold by 1¢ — one penny — and dramatically change its own profitability, without hurting shoppers.

6/ It would have been hard to do that in 7,000 US stores, across 100,000 items.

But you know who could raise the price of every item it sells by 1¢, & put all that money into wages—and customers wouldn't notice?

And do it from a keyboard?

Yeah: Amazon.

amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effec…

7/ American frontline workers should make $16 to $20 an hour.

$16 an hour is $33,000 a year. That's basic wages.

You know what other huge American company dramatically raised wages for workers?

Ford, under Henry Ford. In 1914, he doubled his factory workers' wages.

8/ Henry Ford (a complicated character) thought his workers should be able to earn enough to buy the Model T cars they were making.

At $2.34 a day, they didn't. At $5 a day, they did.

projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus…

9/ One of the big points I try to make in 'The Wal-Mart Effect' is that cheap prices ultimately hurt the people they are ostensibly helping.

Crappy blue jeans for $19.99 are a bad deal compared to long-lasting blue jeans at $29.99—for precisely the people for whom $10 matters.

10/ The question WSJ editorial writers & CNBC commentators always ask, with sober concern:

Can we *afford* to pay American workers $20 an hour to staff the drive through & put our stuff in Amazon boxes?

Not only can we.

As we've discovered, we can't afford not to.

11/ If we can't afford to pay our fellow Americans who take care of us every day a reasonable wage, we've organized our economy, and our country, in a completely unsustainable way.

And also — by the by — in a morally unsustainable way.

Read:
wsj.com/articles/amazo…

12/ Hey, 1 more thing:

The WSJ story & analysis looking at Amazon's positive impact on wage rates (and the impact that has on other employers)—that's by:

Sebastian Herrara
@SebasAHerrera

Hard work. Nuanced analysis. Real voices.
#JournalismMatters

wsj.com/articles/amazo…