# Amazon Wage Hikes and AI Data Center Backlash

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-09-17

## Transcript

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The AI data center boom is colliding with cities scarred by big industry.
I'm Imran Sheik and let's get started.
Welcome to your Thursday Daily Crunch.
Well, Amazon's raising the minimum starting pay for its U.S.
core operations workers, like delivery drivers and fulfillment center employees, to $20 an hour, and its average hourly pay to nearly $24 per hour.
The company notes that higher pay represents an increase of $1 per hour for eligible employees.
When you add in the value of our industry-leading benefits, average total compensation comes to more than $32 per hour, Amazon senior vice president Udit Madan wrote in a blog post.
The investment in these raises comes out to over $1.5 billion, or about 0.06% of its $2.68 trillion market cap.
In addition, Amazon says it'll now also provide employees with access to a low-cost banking system called Day One Financial, a membership in First Tech Federal Credit Union, as well as a 20% discount on purchases bought in-store at Whole Foods Market, the premium grocery chain that Amazon owns.
If employees order groceries online via Amazon, they will also get a 10% discount.
Amazon already offers its employees free Prime memberships, prepaid education programs, and healthcare coverage among its benefits.
On a subreddit for Amazon Fulfillment Center employees, people seem less than enthused.
Regarding the Whole Foods discount, one worker commented, so it would make it cost almost the same as a regular store then.
Ha ha ha.
A reference to Whole Foods' historically higher prices.
Meta announced on Wednesday that its social network and ex-rival Threads is rolling out new tools that will allow podcast creators to promote their shows, grow their audiences, and engage existing listeners directly on the platform.
The news comes as X has also more recently been encouraging its creators to directly post videos on the platform, especially podcasts, to earn revenue and grow engagement.
Now, while Threads is not yet looking to host podcasts, it wants to make its platform a hub for posting and discussion.
To start, Threads will display a podcast profile card and banner on a creator's profile and in their posts.
Plus, when creators post episode links, they appear as tappable cards in the post, allowing users to easily listen.
The feature also lets podcast hosts directly post transcripts for listeners to read along with the episode, and they can tag featured guests, which displays a card related to that.
Users can save any of these posts, making it easy to listen to the episode at a later time.
Threads will additionally be able to send reminders to creators when their new episode drops to post on Threads, which could help boost their engagement with listeners.
The social platform is also providing tools that offer insights into how the audience is engaging with creators' posts with metrics like views over time by followers, non-followers, and all.
Last year, Threads rolled out new tools to increase discussion around podcasts with features like better link cards and linking their profile with their podcasts.
Threads is now close to X in terms of users, as Meta's social network reached 500 million active users in June.
Across the country, Americans are debating how their lives might change if new AI data centers are built in their backyards.
You see, data center companies and their customers are promising new jobs and economic growth, but that pitch hasn't won over a majority of Americans who oppose data center construction in their area, often over environmental and energy concerns.
For activist Shamar Pitts, these concerns aren't theoretical.
He knows better than anyone what it's like to live in the shadow of American industrialization.
A lifelong resident of the Grays Ferry neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia, Pitts grew up next to what was then the East Coast's largest oil refinery, which shut down after an explosion in 2019.
Though many of his friends and family suffered from chronic health conditions, he didn't realize what might have caused these illnesses.
until he encountered the environmental justice group Philly Thrive, which was tabling in his neighborhood in 2018 about a proposed oil refinery expansion.
Pitts, who is now the managing co-director of that same organization, is among those leading the charge for a data center moratorium in Philadelphia.
While there have been no formal proposals for construction yet, city officials have identified two potential sites, one in northeast Philadelphia and the other in Pitts' Gray's Ferry neighborhood.
Data center opposition from local residents isn't unique to Philadelphia.
Residents across the United States have pushed back against new data center construction, particularly those living in cities and towns with finite resources.
But the pushback has been particularly swift from people living in communities where big industries mark is still felt.
Concerned citizens across the country do seem to be getting through to their officials.
In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order that temporarily prevents the state from approving new permits for large projects.
Data center moratoriums have also been approved in a number of U.S.
cities, including Denver, Indianapolis, Asheville, Charlotte, and Reno.
The purpose of these moratoriums is often to allow city officials to collect more information about the potential impacts of building data centers.
Now to the latest in startup business news, all in about one minute with our friend, producer Dennis.
Imran, thank you.
And the U.S.
has ambitious plans to triple the capacity of its nuclear power plants by 2050.
But that goal might hit a roadblock if plant operators can't buy fuel at reasonable prices.
Prices for yellowcake, a form of unrefined uranium, are up 75% in the last five years, and that's according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Further complicating matters, the US does not have significant resources within its borders, unless you consider the ocean.
The ocean has over 4 billion metric tons of uranium in it, enough for 50,000 years or so.
It's like a thousand times more than all identified hard rock mines combined.
Jeff Green, founder and CEO of the cleantech Fluxnium, told TechCrunch, Fluxnium thinks it has solved the problem of how to extract uranium from seawater.
Using technology developed at U.S.
Department of Energy National Labs, the company has an approach that could be competitive with existing uranium mines.
The startup recently closed a $7 million seed round.
And folks, that's your daily crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Amanda Silberling, Ivan Mehta, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same tech time, same crunch channel, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.