Amazon increases pay for warehouse and delivery workers

Amazon It raises its hourly wages for its warehouse and delivery workers, the company announce Wednesday.

Starting in October, Amazon’s average starting wage for U.S. frontline employees will be more than $19 an hour from $18 an hour, the company said.

Amazon added that warehouse and delivery workers will make between $16 and $26 an hour depending on their position. Amazon’s minimum wage for US employees is still $15 an hour.

Amazon is spending nearly $1 billion on wage increases over the next year as it seeks to attract and retain employees in a historically tight job market. It is also preparing to enter what is known as ‘peak’ season, a particularly busy period of shopping associated with the holidays.

Tensions between Amazon and its frontline workforce have risen, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Employees demanded higher wages, more paid time off and an adjustment to productivity expectations.

Workers at several Amazon facilities have taken steps to organize, and earlier this year, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, successfully voted to form the company’s first US union. Amazon faces another union election at a location near Albany, New York, next month.

company He said Earlier this month, it planned to increase wages and benefits for drivers employed by members of its contracted delivery network, which handles a growing share of customers’ last-mile deliveries.

Besides the pay increase, Amazon said it is also expanding a prepaid program for its employees that allows them to access up to 70% of their eligible earned salaries whenever they choose and free of charge, not just on a schedule, such as every two weeks.

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