October 24, 2018
The NYT had an interesting piece noting the differences between the way Sears and other large employers of the last century treated their workers and the way Amazon treats its workers. The focus of the piece is a profit sharing plan which gave 10 percent of Sears before-tax profits to workers in the form of a retirement fund that purchased company stock.
While this plan did allow many employees to accumulate substantial assets to support themselves in retirement, it is worth noting that a similar commitment would not have the same impact for Amazon workers. Amazon made $3 billion in profit last year. Ten percent of this figure would be $300 million. If it divided this sum equally among its 500,000 employees, that would come to $600 each.
While this is not an altogether trivial sum, it is not likely to provide for a very generous retirement. It amounts to 2.0 percent of the annual earnings of a full-time worker getting $15 an hour.
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