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Wayfair Wage Increase To Benefit Workforce, Including Springfield Employees

Brian Bull
/
KLCC

Boston-based retailer Wayfair has announced that it’s increasing U.S. worker pay to $15 an hour, effective this weekend. That helps some local workers.

Wayfair is a furniture and home goods company. It employs nearly 17,000 employees in North America and Europe, which includes 200 workers in its Springfield service center.

This latest increase applies to permanent, part-time, and seasonal employees.  Many workers advocates have lobbied for $15 an hour, as a means towards a livable wage.

Wayfair doesn’t disclose worker’s wage history, but a Register-Guard articlecovering the center’s opening in 2019 suggested it would likely have paid $10.75 an hour…then Oregon’s standard minimum wage.

In a release, Wayfair also highlighted its help to workers during the pandemic, including emergency paid time off, bi-weekly family dinners, and childcare support.

Copyright 2021, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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