Posted on 09/15/2021 8:02:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Amazon.com Inc has increased its average starting wage in the United States to more than $18 an hour and plans to hire another 125,000 warehouse and transportation workers, an executive told Reuters.
The world’s largest online retailer has raised pay from an average of around $17 since May. In some locations, the company is giving signing bonuses of $3,000, said Dave Bozeman, vice president of Amazon Delivery Services, or triple what the company offered four months ago.
The fatter paycheck, which Reuters was first to report, shows how big employers are desperate to draw workers in an increasingly tight U.S. labor market. Fewer Americans are seeking jobless claims https://www.reuters.com/business/us-weekly-jobless-claims-near-18-month-low-2021-09-09 just as openings have hit a record in the reopening economy.
Bozeman attributed Amazon's latest compensation increase to fierce competition. Amazon did not give exact figures, but a $1 raise on a $17-per-hour wage would amount to a hike of about 6%.
Amazon, now the second-biggest U.S. private employer, set a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2018. Walmart Inc recently touted https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-bumps-up-hourly-wages-565000-workers-by-1-ahead-holidays-2021-09-02 average hourly wages of $16.40, while Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said it would raise its minimum https://www.reuters.com/business/walgreens-raise-minimum-hourly-wage-all-team-members-oct-2021-08-31 to $15 in October.
"It's a tight labor market, and we've seen some of that as the entire industry is seeing," said Bozeman, who spoke in an interview at a delivery station in Tukwila, Washington.
He said Amazon would maintain its $15 an hour base pay. Benefits like funding college tuition for workers and starting wages as high as $22.50 in some areas distinguished the online retailer from peers, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at compuserve.com ...
MORE HERE:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-raises-average-wage-18-it-scrambles-fill-125000-jobs
[EXCERPT]
With millions of Americans still sitting on the sidelines of the labor market, Amazon and Wal-Mart are going head to head in a battle to recruit thousands of additional workers before the holidays. The competition for bodies has gotten so intense that Amazon recently recommended to the contractors who handle the last leg of package delivery (you know, the ones who drive around in those navy blue Amazon-branded trucks?) to stop screening potential drivers for marijuana.
Days after Wal-Mart revealed it would be scrapping its quarterly bonus program in favor of raising wages, Amazon has reportedly one-upped its chief rival by raising its average wage to $18 ahead of a hiring spree that could see it hire another 125K workers before the holidays.
That $18 average has risen from $17 since May. In some locations, the company is giving signing bonuses of $3,000, said Dave Bozeman, vice president of Amazon Delivery Services- roughly triple what the company offered four months ago.
Bozeman attributed Amazon’s latest compensation increase to fierce competition for workers. Amazon did not give exact figures, but said a $1 raise on a $17-per-hour wage would amount to a hike of about 6%. Amazon, now the second-biggest private employer in the US, adopted a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2018, while Walmart recently touted average hourly wages of $16.40. Dow component Walgreens Boots Alliance said it would raise its minimum to $15 in October.
Requires Vaccine, no thank you
I’m sure this won’t be passed on to consumers 😏
The good thing about Amazon is that they can pay these high wages in areas where people can’t find jobs that pay even close to that amount. It’s not easy work, but it can improve your life if you aren’t afraid of hard work.
Drives up the cost of ALL labor services.
Getting too old and crippled to do some of the chores around my place and the cost of having locals do them is going up quickly...if you can even find someone willing and capable to do the work.
No. They don’t
Not hard work.
90-lb women are some of their best workers
wonder how “tax the rich” AOC is feeling about this...
“average starting wage”
That is not THE starting wage. Anyone know what it is?
Obviously there are hundreds of jobs. Some require heavy lifting of large items and operating heavy equipment. But many do not. I’m not trying to be an Amazon fanboy but literally anyone can find a spot there. There are warehouses and shipping centers in the middle NOWHERE that employ a lot of locals who otherwise would have no job. Anyone can be an affiliate and work from home. I see numerous Amazon Sprinter vans every day, seven days a week in my town. Customer service has been fantastic. Every time I have had an issue, they refund me and/or send a replacement item. Meanwhile I walk into my local mom and pop hardware store and the kid behind the counter can’t be bothered or has no idea what I’m asking for.
I gave up. 12-16 hour days for me.
I could not find competent help that my insurance company would approve (they have to drive company cars) at any price.
Hard work does not necessiarly mean heavy lifting.
My brother worked for them for 3 years in Minnesota
Worker were shorts and tee shirts year round, even during a MN winter, due to the excessive heat in their facilities
Ergometric design of work stations is almost non existent. Despite solicitating suggestion from the work force all change requests are ignored by Amazon. Injuries are frequently due poorly designed work stations and constant repetitive motions.
My brother left after 3 years to go back to truck driving. He said it was safer then working for Amazon.
Some of us may recall the “Massachusetts Miracle” which propelled Gov. Mike Dukakis to be the DemocRAT nominee for President. What was the miracle? A tight labor market leading to increases in base pay and signing bonuses as businesses scrambled to fill vacancies. It appears we are seeing a similar effect but this time because of a low participation rate. Watch for SlowJoe and his administration to make similar claims of a Miracle. Will we see Xiden sitting in a tank?
Maybe they might hire people who speak English… I ordered a portable power station through Amazon and the idiots sent a neck pillow instead.
Be prepared to walk 10-15 miles a day on mega-warehouse concrete floors, robots do the heavy lifting.
Did 7 yrs with Amazon and just left recently. Just couldn’t take the physical aspect of being on my feet the whole 10 hr shift. Also what you said about the work stations is spot on. We’d fight for literal years to get improvements in workstations only for it to fall on deaf ears. Amazon (at least in my building) also does not like to promote managers from within, so not only are you doing your job, you’re trying to show the ropes to the new guy/gal. Got old really quick.
One reason why the southern border is left open is to bring wages for this kind of work down. Can't interfere with illegal increases in corporate profits don'tchaknow.
“tax the rich”
She ran them out of New York so much for her thinking powers par.
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