Amazon Offers Wage Hike, Free Prime Membership To Hourly Workers

(RTTNews) - Amazon announced an increase in wages for its hourly warehouse workers along with other benefits, including a Prime subscription at no extra cost.

Udit Madan, vice president, Amazon Worldwide Operations said the average total compensation package for hourly front-line employees across fulfillment and transportation network in the US would now be over $29 per hour.

In a statement, the company said the hourly members of front-line team will be getting at least an additional $1.50/hour starting this month. This will bring their average base wage to more than $22/hour and average total compensation to more than $29/hour when the value of their elected benefits is being included.

This is an increase of $3,000 a year on average for full-time employees who work a 40-hour week. In 2018, the starting wage was increased to $15/hour, more than double the then federal minimum wage.

According to the firm, the pay increase to its more than 800,000 people in these roles across the U.S. equals a total investment of more than $2.2 billion.

The offered benefits include health care from the first day on the job, dental coverage, a 401(k) program with a company match, flexible working hours, and pre-paid college tuition.

The company further said that it now lets team members enroll in language classes from day one, while earlier those classes were only offered after 90 days and employees needed to wait for a few months before they were eligible.

In addition, Prime will become part of the benefits package of front-line team members across Amazon operations starting early next year. Hourly team members in the U.S. will get Prime at no additional cost for as long as they are a part of the Amazon team.

Last week, Amazon also raised wages for its contracted delivery drivers to a national average of nearly $22 per hour, depending on their location, which is a 7% increase over last year. The company announced a $2.1 billion investment this year into Amazon's Delivery Service Partner or DSP program.