Households in the Los Angeles metro region paid $7.2 billion for packages from Amazon last year. Less publicly visible was more than $790 million paid out in public subsidies and uncompensated public costs that supported Amazon\u2019s profitability.<\/p>\n
Every day, ships, trucks, trains, and airplanes bring an estimated 21,500 diesel truck loads of merchandise to 21 Amazon warehouses in the four-county region. An estimated 18,600 workers are employed at these Amazon warehouses. The impact of these logistics operations in the Los Angeles-Orange-Riverside-San Bernardino-county region are scrutinized in a new report by the Economic Roundtable, Too Big to Govern<\/em>.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s warehouses have been welcomed as a source of jobs and economic growth by poorer, job-hungry communities. Local cities and the state have provided an estimated $30 million to subside construction of Amazon\u2019s warehouses. With no better local alternatives, workers struggle to hang on to jobs that many say are repetitive, exhausting and stressful.<\/p>\n Arthur Medrano, who worked as an unloader\/thrower at a Rialto warehouse, said, \u201cAll they care about is how you can make them money. They increase your productivity requirements out of nowhere and expect you to reach them without an issue. It\u2019s extreme hard work with constant job insecurity and low pay. I couldn’t afford to rent my own place when I worked there and I know others faced the same issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The typical Amazon warehouse worker had total annual earnings in 2017 of $20,585. For every dollar in wages paid by Amazon, warehouse workers receive an estimated 24 cents in public assistance benefits to meet essential needs. The average annual amount of public benefits per worker is $5,245. The biggest component is publicly subsidized health insurance.<\/p>\n As a consequence of having low wages and insufficient incomes to afford adequate homes for their families, 57% of Amazon warehouse workers live in housing that is overcrowded and substandard. Housing records provide direct and indirect evidence of significant homelessness among warehouse workers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is growing activism among low-wage workers like Amazon\u2019s warehouse employees. There is also growing public outrage that the nation\u2019s largest and most profitable private employers are not paying workers enough to cover their workers\u2019 basic living expenses,\u201d said Peter Dreier, professor of political science at Occidental College.<\/p>\n Public Records Act requests were sent to 39 public jurisdictions where Amazon facilities are located. Nineteen jurisdictions said they had no records related to Amazon. Thirteen had minimal permit records, and seven had completed environmental impact reports. No impacts on the environment, traffic or human well-being were identified that warranted stopping a project.<\/p>\n Often job creation was identified as the reason for proceeding with a project.<\/p>\n Environmental costs include global warming impacts from 620,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year from Amazon\u2019s cargo flights into and out of local airports, and 15 billion ton-miles of diesel truck travel a year hauling cargo from sea ports to warehouses and releasing harmful emissions into low-income communities along freeway corridors.<\/p>\n Ongoing annual public costs for Amazon\u2019s warehouse and shipping operations in the LA Metro region include:<\/p>\n