Insufficient income! Are Amazon workers in the United States still living below the poverty line?

In separate letters to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, ​​DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, UN-appointed human rights expert Olivier Desjardins asked the companies to respond to reports of inadequate pay, aggressive union-busting tactics and the misclassification of workers as "independent contractors."

"It is very disturbing to me that workers at some of the most profitable companies in the world can struggle to afford food or rent, " Olivier said.

As a recent report on the “working poor” for the United Nations outlined, non-standard employment contracts are a major reason these workers are unable to make ends meet .

The report also noted that the U.S. government listed the three companies as the largest employers of government health and food aid.

“Employment is supposed to provide a path out of poverty , but all three companies’ business models appear to shift the costs of operating onto the population by relying on government benefits to supplement abysmally low wages, ” Olivier said.

According to information Olivier has received, the ability of workers at Amazon and Walmart to negotiate higher wages has been severely hampered by their employers , with the two companies spending millions of dollars to fight worker unionization.

The expert lamented: "The United States seems to have turned a blind eye to these companies ' union-busting practices and allowed them to force workers to accept pitifully low wages while corporate revenues soared . "

“In the United States, approximately 6.3 million people are classified as working poor, and the country lags far behind other high-income countries in terms of wage policies, worker protections, and the right to organize . ”

The expert requested a response to his letter within 60 days , but so far only Amazon has responded, although it did not fully address all of the concerns. The U.S. government, DoorDash and Walmart have not responded at all .

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