Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) finds his time is best spent attacking tech tycoon Amazon for supposedly not paying their workers enough.
On Tuesday, Sanders posted a video on Twitter where he criticized Amazon for forcing their employees to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing “because their wages are just too low.”
Bernie Sanders✔@SenSanders
The American people are subsidizing Amazon workers’ food stamps while their boss, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world. It’s time to get Mr. Bezos off of welfare.
To that attack, Amazon responded on Twitter:
Amazon News✔@amazonnews
.@sensanders We’ve created over 130K new full-time jobs in the last year alone. Good jobs w/highly competitive pay & full benefits. Avg hourly wage in the U.S. for a full-time associate in our fulfillment centers, including cash, stock, & incentive bonuses, is over $15/hour (1/2) https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/998976484672004102 …
Amazon News✔@amazonnews
Competitive pay + full benefits — health, vision/dental, retirement, generous parental leave, & training for in-demand jobs through our Career Choice program. Please compare our median pay & benefits to other retailers. We’d be happy for you to come see an FC for yourself. (2/2)
Sanders criticism of Amazon comes as he gears up to introduce a Senate bill on Sept. 5.
“If Amazon, Walmart and other corporations won’t pay their workers a living wage, our bill would establish a 100% tax equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers. The American taxpayer should not be subsidizing the richest people in history so they can underpay their employees,” Sanders said in a statement.
Amazon posted to their blog Wednesday, stating, “Senator Sanders continues to spread misleading statements about pay and benefits. Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs last year alone. In the U.S., the average hourly wage for a full-time associate in our fulfillment centers, including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses, is over $15/hour before overtime. We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers.”
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of operations, even went a step further Wednesday by sharingSanders’ site where he asks Amazon workers to share their experiences with him. Amazon is not afraid of the site, and instead encourages its workers to respond truthfully.
Dave Clark@davehclark.@sensanders would like to understand your experience at AMZN.He only asks if you are on SNAP (he calls it “food stamps”), but I hope he’d be interested in hearing that you’re not.Please tell him your truth. I encourage you all to share your experiences: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/share-your-experiences-working-at-amazon ….
Share Your Experiences Working at Amazon
Are you a current or former Amazon employee? Please share your experiences working at Amazon with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
sanders.senate.gov
The bottom line is that Sanders has better policy to deal with in his own state. Why is he attacking Amazon when Amazon has such a small percentage of its workforce in the state he represents?
