Jeff Bezos on Thursday issued a challenge to other retailers, not naming which ones specifically, to match Amazon’s pay and benefits.
He made the challenge in his annual letter to shareholders.
“Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage. Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us. It’s a kind of competition that will benefit everyone,” Bezos wrote in the letter, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Arguably Amazon’s biggest retail competitors in the U.S. today, Walmart and Target, have both been making investments in pay. But they’re still behind Amazon.
Target just last week said it would be increasing its its minimum hourly wage by a dollar, to $13, in June for all current and new employees. This is part of its already announced goal to hit $15 an hour by the end of 2020.
Target’s rate is higher than rival Walmart’s $11-an-hour minimum, set in January of 2018, but is still below Amazon’s rate, which was hiked to $15 in November.
Representatives from Walmart and Target weren’t immediately available to comment on Bezos’ comments.
