It is still insufficient, but it's also disingenuous to use the profit of their global operations to say the fine is a small cost of doing business to their California warehouses.
That's fun too. But ultimately has the same function as a fine. The circle of life AT&T has taught us that. Nothing will change unless people are actually held accountable.
Surprise, Amazon warehouse jobs are Akin to sweatshops. They try to parse bullshit to get around regulations so that they can suck every last bit of energy from their employees causing their bodies long term harm in the process.
I guess they’ll just fire these employees, cut off their insurance and send them out to pasture . I bet they’ll fill those vacant positions with newly arrived workers from other countries.
The corporate jobs aren't much better. The pay is great for tech workers, but no amount of money makes the 10% yearly cull, the added layoffs, and micromanagement easier.
To your last point, though, you'd be surprised at how hard it can be as a very experienced candidate from outside the US to land a role in the US. I have had multiple HM's that have wanted to hire me for my experience in their market, but they have been forced to take domestic candidates or to run weeks of interviews with external candidates to rule out that a foreigner should get a tech role.
They don't have to - if the penalty is a fine, then it's just the cost of business. Everyone is fine with the system - as long as the profits gained from breaking the rule are bigger than the fine, behavior won't change.