Economics
McDonald’s, Amazon Accelerate Push Toward Higher Minimum Wage
- U.S. companies boosting pay to lure workers in tight market
- Amazon plans to hire 75,000 people starting at $17 an hour
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As the U.S. economy rebounds from the ravages of Covid-19, the country’s biggest corporations find themselves in need of workers, putting upward pressure on pay.
Retail giants, fast-food chains, and ride-hailing companies are offering higher wages and cash payments. Referral and signing bonuses, rarely needed before to fill entry-level, low-wage jobs, are now commonplace. These incentives represent a slow but steady march toward a goal that lawmakers and labor activists have pursued for years, with limited success: a higher minimum wage, approaching $15 an hour.