Amazon

Amazon stock has increased 135% over the past five years going from $85 to $225. That is 27% per year while the profits increased 33% per year. The average wage at Amazon is $36 per hour but the 175,000 warehouse workers earn only $18. Amazon has 200 million Prime members that pay $139 per year. To double the salary of the warehouse workers would cost $6.3 billion dollars and could be paid for by raising the cost of Prime by $31 per year. The company could use a combination of raising the price of Prime along with some of its profits to pay the warehouse workers. Jeff Bezos owns 912 million shares with a current value of $205 billion dollars. He could pay the wage increase for the whse workers out of his own pocket and if the stock increased by $7 that would cover his cost. Amazon has 1.6 million employees but only 10,000 are represented by the Teamsters Union and they are currently on strike. These are whse workers from ten different locations. One of the best ways to narrow the income gap is for companies to unionize. If employee feel they are not being treated fairly they want a union and if they are treated fairly they don't want a union.