Jeff Bezos boasts in letter to shareholders that 40 million Americans makes less than any Amazon employee

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos boasted in a letter to shareholders that the lowest paid Amazon worker makes more than 40 million Americans in the US.
• Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 in 2018; the US federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
• Despite offering a competitive salary for workers, the company has come under scrutiny over its warehouse conditions, most recently in the context of safety during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos talked up the perks of a job at Amazon in a letter to shareholders in on Thursday.

56-year-old Bezos proudly stated that the lowest paid Amazon worker makes more than 40 million Americans in the US, earning $15 an hour versus the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 in 2018.

Talking about the 2018 raise, Bezos said: "it had an immediate and meaningful impact on the hundreds of thousands of people working in our fulfillment centers. We want other big employers to join us by raising their own minimum pay rates, and we continue to lobby for a $15 federal minimum wage."

Despite its competitive wages, Amazon has continued to come under scrutiny over the treatment of its workers.

At present, the narrative has been centered around its warehouse workers who are protesting conditions during the coronavirus pandemic, saying they are at high risk of catching the virus.

Amazon has repeatedly defended the working conditions in its warehouses, however. In a blog post online, which it continues to update, the company outlines the measures it is taking to protect workers. These include "enhanced cleaning and social distancing measures," temperature checks, and masks for workers.

Since March, Amazon has hired 100,000 new workers to cope with the surge in demand and has plans to hire a further 75,000 more.

In the letter, Bezos highlighted two recent hires, who had recently lost their jobs or been furloughed because of the pandemic. He said that Amazon is "happy" to hire workers until "things return to normal, and either their former employer can bring them back or new jobs become available."

He continued: "We've welcomed Joe Duffy, who joined after losing his job as a mechanic at Newark airport and learned about an opening from a friend who is an Amazon operations analyst. Dallas preschool teacher Darby Griffin joined after her school closed on March 9th and now helps manage new inventory. We're happy to have Darby with us until she can return to the classroom."