Amazon raises minimum wage for all UK and US workers

The pay rise will benefit more than 37,000 employees in total, the online retailer said

Amazon has raised its minimum wage for all UK workers, including full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal staff, the retail giant announced on Tuesday.

The company has increased pay for employees in the London area to £10.50, while pay for all other UK workers will go up to £9.50, with the changes taking effect from 1 November.

According to the US group, this rise will benefit more than 17,000 Amazon employees as well as more than 20,000 seasonal employees who will be hired by the company at sites across the UK over the festive season.

Doug Gurr, Amazon VP and UK manager, said: “This will impact more than 37,000 employees across the country, resulting in higher pay for them and their families.”

Pay for the company’s US workers has also been raised, to $15 (£11.60) an hour.

Amazon has been criticised in the past over working conditions at its operations, with staff across Europe staging a strike on its last Amazon Prime day. The unions behind the industrial action said it was called as part of a demand for healthier working conditions for people working at Amazon's fulfilment centres.

Meanwhile, the company also faces calls to improve its tax strategy - in August it emerged that Amazon’s UK corporation tax bill fell to just £4.6m last year despite its profits tripling.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Amazon is a trillion-dollar company. It can easily afford to pay staff higher wages.

“If Amazon is really serious about looking after its workforce it must recognise trade unions. And it must end the exploitative working practices that have seen hundreds of ambulances called to its UK warehouses.

“All workers deserve decent conditions at work - not surveillance, inhuman targets and the threat of a disciplinary if they to go to the toilet.2

Ms O’Grady added: “Today’s announcement is the result of campaigning by the GMB and unions around the world. It’s only a start and shouldn’t be spun as a huge act of generosity.”