Amazon Raises Hourly Wages at Value of Nearly $1 Billion a Yr

(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. introduced a pay enhance for hourly staff within the US that it says will take common beginning wage for many front-line workers in warehousing and transportation to greater than $19 an hour.

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The corporate’s minimal stage of $15 an hour for all hourly staff within the US stays unchanged. For jobs in Amazon’s buyer success and transportation teams, the beginning pay will enhance to $16 an hour, a spokesperson stated Wednesday in an e-mail.

The Seattle-based firm stated the elevate represents extra spending of virtually $1 billion over the subsequent 12 months. Amazon is the second-largest personal employer within the US, behind Walmart Inc. Amazon employed greater than 1.1 million folks within the US on the finish of 2021. The corporate’s whole workforce was greater than 1.5 million as of June 30. Most of these workers are hourly staff who pack and ship gadgets, or work in retail shops like Complete Meals Market and Amazon Recent.

The corporate is also increasing entry to a program that lets workers receives a commission extra continuously than a few times a month, in accordance with a press release.

Amazon faces worker activism and union drives at a few of its amenities, together with at an Albany, New York-area warehouse the place a vote is scheduled for subsequent month. The corporate is difficult an election final April during which greater than 8,000 staff at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse gained the suitable to be represented by a union.

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