Longtime employees said they will not receive raises comparable to $15 hourly rate new workers will receive

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Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its U. S employees. This includes all full time, part time seasonal and temporary staff, as well as those retained through outside agencies. Amazon, which has previously been under fire over its pay for low ranking workers and was recently targeted by Senator Bernie Sanders, who brought forth a less than subtle named piece of legislation last month, called the stop bad employers by zeroing out subsidies or the Stop Base ALS Act. A dig at Amazon CEO Jeff Base ALS. The X says companies that don't pay a living wage should have to reimburse the tax authorities for the federal benefits paid out to their low wage workers. Sanders claims many Amazon workers need food stamps to feed their families acclaim. Amazon disputes, Basil said they listen to their critics, thought hard about what they wanted to do and decided they wanted to lead and is encouraging their competitors and other large employers to join them. In comparison, Walmarts minimum wage is $11 an hour, while Target is aiming to achieve $15 an hour by 2020. Amazon's announcement comes just ahead of the holiday hiring season and takes effect in November

Advertisement Some Kenosha Amazon employees unhappy with company's minimum wage hike Longtime employees said they will not receive raises comparable to $15 hourly rate new workers will receive Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The online retailer Amazon announced Tuesday that it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, but many employees in Kenosha said they're angry and that they are losing critical benefits and incentives."I'm getting 25 cents more than someone who starts Nov. 1. I've been busting my butt for over three years and the incentive is only 25 cents more than someone who comes in," said Joan Schonert, who has worked for Amazon since July 2015. "I mean, that's good for the new people, you know? I wouldn't mind starting out at $15 an hour. I started at $12.50," said Greg Kilmaszewski, who started at Amazon in March 2015Longtime employees said they will not receive raises comparable to the $15 hourly rate that new workers will receive. They also said they will lose certain benefits and bonuses, such as unpaid time off and free company stock, which they received for meeting productivity goals. "This company right here makes No. 1 throughout the country, is No. 1 throughout this country. All that, we make records, and now they're trying to take stuff away that we make records with, because it was an incentive," Kilmaszewski said. “A slap in the face. They took away a lot of the good perks we had, and now I’m just going to make 25 cents more than someone who just got hired Nov. 1," Schonert said. Amazon released an updated statement to WISN 12 News on Wednesday afternoon saying, "The significant increase in hourly cash wages more than compensates for the phase out of incentive pay and RSUs (restrictive stock units). We can confirm that all hourly Operations and Customer Service employees will see an increase in their total compensation as a result of this announcement. In addition, because it’s no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable."