Amazon just raised its minimum wage to $20. It’s not as high as it sounds

Just in time for its busiest season, Amazon has raised wages for its frontline workers, bringing their starting pay to $20 an hour. The boost amounts to a $1 increase in minimum hourly wages for the hundreds of thousands of workers who staff the company’s warehouses. The new pay increase raises wages just as Amazon is gearing up for the holidays, when the tech giant sees a massive boost in orders. Amazon has historically staffed up in anticipation of this period, hiring an estimated 250,000 additional workers last year—accounting for about half of seasonal hires across the entire retail sector. Amazon claims that its minimum pay has ticked up by about 17% in the last three years, and that average pay across its hourly workforce is actually higher at nearly $24 an hour. The company is also giving its workers access to a new banking benefit and grocery discount; when employee benefits are taken into account, average total compensation is more like $32 an hour, according to Amazon. This puts Amazon pay above the minimum wage in many parts of the country, as legislation has raised hourly wages across countless states and localities. By the end of 2026, the minimum wage will have cross…