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Originally Posted by CommonReader
A company that pays almost no taxes and mainly creates badly paid jobs with frequent labour disputes has few friends.
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The city of Seattle, Amazon's home, has no such complaints about Amazon. In fact, Amazon reportedly asked Seattle for none of the traditional tax breaks that corporations routinely get from cities as a condition of locating there. Amazon has completely transformed a formerly 'undesirable' warehouse area near downtown, even paying for amenities normally the responsibility of the city, and is now moving into downtown. Two of Seattle's other homegrown companies, Boeing and Microsoft, built their campuses in suburban areas.
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In fact, the company’s modification of the city doesn’t even stop at its buildings. In South Lake Union and beyond, Amazon is creating the very urban amenities that local governments normally take care of. For the privilege of developing three alleyways, which are technically city property, Amazon is paying $10 million, according to Diane Sugimura, director of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development. But as part of the deal, Amazon is also required to build wider sidewalks, construct two blocks of separated bike lanes (which will ultimately become part of the neighborhood’s larger cycling network), contribute public art to the area, add a streetcar to the existing system and carve out a dog run. Many of these projects Amazon will not only fund, but also design and build.
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Link to above quote:
Amazon Straight-Up Developing Whole Seattle Neighborhoods Now
It is interesting that Amazon has gone to great lengths to pay no more taxes than legally required pretty much everywhere, but is a model citizen at home.
As far as "mainly creates badly paid jobs",
Payscale.com claims Amazon typically pays its employees 12% above market rate. Here are the hourly rate figures:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/...nc/Hourly_Rate