Amazon bumps US minimum wage to $15 amid scarce labor

Online retail giant Amazon announced Tuesday it would raise its starting wage for US workers to $15 an hour, amid long-standing criticism of low pay, and would advocate for a higher minimum wage nationwide. The pay raise will apply to 250,000 employees starting November 1 and to the more than 100,000 seasonal workers the company expects to hire for the holiday shopping season, it said. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said the company -- valued at nearly $1 trillion -- was heeding complaints about its pay structure.