By Kayla Cohen ‘21, Staff Writer

Amazon, the online superstore used daily by people of all ages, is now the most valuable public company in the world, even ahead of Apple. But the company is in the headlines for problems involving employees, companies on the site, and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Here is everything you need to know involving Amazon in the news:

Increase in Wages for All Employees

After years of wage strikes from employees, Amazon has raised its minimum wage for its employees to $15 an hour. This is more than double the United States federal minimum wage of $7.25. Amazon has more than 250,000 employees that will be affected by the change. Not only will this increased interest in working at Amazon, but Amazon hopes that their other competitors will join them in raising wages. Senator Bernie Sanders said, “I think they saw the calculation that it was indefensible that a man whose wealth is over $150 billion be able to continue paying workers wages that are so low that they are forced to rely on federal benefits.” Sanders also described the increase in wages as “a shot heard around the world.” Sanders believes that this increase in wages will not only help Amazon’s employees but will help employees of other companies as well and will benefit those currently earning minimum wage.

Corrupt Competition Between Companies

Outside companies selling their products on Amazon are no
w involved in corrupt competition with their competitors in order to create a higher profit. Some entrepreneurs have been trying to reduce their competition by changing the search categories associated with their competitors’ products. By making their opponents’ search terms inaccurate and uncommonly searched, the outside company gains higher sales. Other ways that outside companies are manipulating the site are by writing multiple inaccurate reviews which are then flagged by the competitor, causing the competitor to lose access to the site for “manipulating their reviews.” In an attempt to gain more sales, these companies are eliminating their competition automatically, making it hard for the victimized companies to start selling their product again for multiple weeks.

Jeff Bezos’ Divorce Causing Negative Media Attention

Higher up in the company, as well, dishonest behavior by Amazon’s founder is creating chaos within the site’s ownership. Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, recently announced his divorce to his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie. Since the couple lives in Washington state, any wealth made during their marriage (which is estimated around $137 billion) could be split equally between the two. The most expensive divorce to date was for a $1 billion settlement, which will make their divorce the most expensive divorce in history. Recently, texts between Bezos and his mistress were leaked to the public that contained sexual language. This incident brought up issues involving the privacy of the Echo product. Bezos wrote, “If the man who wants to put listening devices in everyone’s home doesn’t always know that everyone’s always watching, I don’t know who will.” One NA student commented, “I think that he should have known better that not everything stays private since the data his product provides has been turned public in the past.” Because of his affair and its effect on his marriage, Bezos is now the subject of scrutiny in the public eye, which potentially can have vast sales consequences for him and his company.