In Amazon.com Inc.’s yearly letter to shareholders, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos challenged his rivals to up their minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Following criticism of how the company treats its workers, in 2018 Amazon vowed to introduce a wage hike in the United States.

The company made good on its promise at the end of the year, although the change meant some workers lost out because changes in stock grants and other benefits. Amazon then made some more changes and those workers also saw an increase in their wages.

Bezos now wants Amazon’s competitors to the do the same, proposing what seems like a minimum-pay war. “Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage,” he said. “Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us. It’s a kind of competition that will benefit everyone.”

The CEO said he believed the wage hike was good for business, saying the increase was “beyond competitive.” He added that while he believes the increase was good for business, what really drove the wage hike was the fact it was just “the right thing to do.”

Amazon’s largesse is not unwarranted and perhaps Bezos can be forgiven for gloating, given that the U.S. minimum wage is still just $7.25 an hour. As for Amazon’s competitors, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a minimum wage of $11 per hour and Target Stores Inc. pays $12, soon to be increased to $13.

After years of Amazon taking salvos of criticism for the treatment of its workers, Bezos said it’s not just the wage hike where the company has progressed. He mentioned educational programs available to workers and paid for by Amazon as well as the Amazon Future Engineer program with which the company hopes to get more people working in STEM fields.

Walmart was quick to rain on Amazon’s parade, alluding to the fact that the wage hike was partly made possible because Amazon paid no federal income tax on its $11 billion in profits in 2018 while also getting a $129 million tax rebate. In a tweet, Dan Barlett, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, wrote, “Hey retail competitors out there (you know who you are) how about paying your taxes?”

Photo: Mike Seyfang/Flickr