Giving Compass' Take:

• Many people are treating Amazon's move as a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 — double the current $7.25 level. Although there is research supporting both sides of this issue, cautious policymakers should consider such a big jump to be outside their comfort level. 

• What are the alternatives to helping American workers besides raising the minimum wage? 

• Here's another example on the impact of a higher minimum wage. 

Before Amazon started showing billion-dollar profits, there was a joke that the massive public company was in reality a charity run by Wall Street investors for the benefit of American consumers. But that humor revealed a deep misunderstanding of Amazonomics. The internet retailer was never any sort of philanthropy. Instead it was a rapidly growing business that invested every dollar of excess cash back into growing the business even further. It sacrificed short-term profitability for innovation and growth. It was capitalism done right.

Given that wildly successful strategy, we can be confident that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest person, has coolly calculated that it makes ample business sense for Amazon to raise the minimum wage it pays its U.S. workers to $15 an hour. The logic seems obvious. The boost would give the trillion-dollar retailing giant an edge over rivals such as Walmart and Target in the competition for increasingly scarce workers. It also gives the company a reputational lift — or perhaps a political heat shield — after politicians such as Bernie Sanders have attacked it for its labor practices, including how some employees receive assistance from government safety-net programs.

Hiking the minimum wage makes sense for Amazon and its workers. That doesn't mean it makes any sense for Washington to follow suit.

Read the full article about the minimum wage debate by James Pethoskoukis at The Week