Starting this month, Amazon.com Inc. is raising the base wage for delivery and transportation workers by $1.50 an hour. This means that full-time workers who work 40 hours a week will now make more than $22 an hour, or $3,000 a year on average.
The e-commerce and cloud giant wrote about the change in a blog post on Wednesday. It also said that starting early next year, Prime membership will be added to its perks.
“Hourly team members in the U.S. will get Prime at no extra cost for as long as they work for Amazon,” Udit Madan, vice president of Amazon international operations, wrote in a blog post.
Madan said that the pay raise is the biggest one that the company has ever made in terms of pay and perks. Its more than 800,000 employees work in its distribution centers and delivery trucks, making it one of the biggest private employers in the U.S.
Due to high interest rates and long periods of inflation, many Americans are having a hard time paying their bills and making ends meet. The news comes at a bad time.
As an added bonus, you will now be able to start language lessons right away, whereas before you could only do that after 90 days of working for the company. Amazon also offers health insurance, a 401(k) match, and paid college for you.
The stock was up 1.8% before the market opened. It has gained 22.7% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has only gained 17.8%.
