Amazon is establishing a new minimum wage in America REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Amazon introduced a $15 minimum wage in 2018, and more large firms are starting to follow suit. Amazon now plans to bring in 75,000 new workers at a higher wage, making hiring harder for others. The company has benchmarked a new minimum wage, first in 2018's low-wage environment and then in the uncertainty of the coronavirus recession. In early May, as business was ramping back up after a year of pandemic disruption, Miami-area chef Phil Bryant said his efforts to find enough workers to expand had run in to a problem: Amazon.