Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- Amazon is raising hourly wages for warehouse workers to over $22, up from $20.50, and introducing a free Prime subscription benefit starting early next year.
- The Prime subscription, valued at $140 annually, offers various perks like expedited delivery and video streaming.
- This wage increase coincides with the upcoming peak Christmas shopping season and follows a $2.1 billion investment in logistics.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Amazon revealed that it will be increasing the compensation of its hourly warehouse workers and introducing a new employee benefit that will provide them with a Prime subscription at no additional cost.
Since the beginning of this month, Amazon has announced that the average starting salary for front-line employees in the United States would be increased to more than $22 per hour, which is an increase from the previous rate of around $20.50 per hour.
Additionally, Amazon has announced that it would begin including its Prime subscription service as part of the benefits package for its employees beginning “early next year.” Members of the program, which costs $140 per year, are granted access to a variety of benefits, including expedited delivery and video streaming, amongst others.
A $2.1 billion investment that Amazon made this year on its third-party logistics program resulted in the company increasing the hourly salaries of its contracted delivery drivers to around $22 per hour. This increase took place last week.
During the time when Amazon is getting ready to enter the peak Christmas shopping season, which is a time when shops normally see a surge in online purchasing, the company has decided to increase its wages. On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it intends to hold a second Prime Day-like bargain extravaganza on October 8-9. This would be the third year that the discount event has been staged by Amazon.
Source : CNBC News
