Amazon to raise wages for half a million workers

Amazon announced Wednesday night that it will give over half a million of its workers a raise but maintain its $15 per hour minimum wage.

The e-commerce giant plans to hike pay starting in mid-May by 50 cents to $3 as part of an effort to hire more people into its customer fulfillment, delivery, package sorting and specialty fulfillment teams.

The raises will cost over $1 billion in incremental pay, Amazon executive Darcie Henry said in a blog post.

“This is on top of our already industry-leading starting wage of at least $15 an hour and the more than $2.5 billion that we invested last year in additional bonuses and incentives for front-line teams,” Henry wrote.

Amazon has already brought on hundreds of thousands of workers since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to match spiked demand.

The company made a record high $21 billion in profit in 2020.

The wage hike announcement comes shortly after Amazon defeated a unionization effort at its Bessemer, Ala., facility.

The union leading that effort, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, has challenged the results and a hearing on the election could come as soon as May 7.

Workers at several other Amazon facilities have organized independently to push for improved working conditions, living wages and protection from the coronavirus. Over 19,000 Amazon workers had contracted COVID-19 as of October of last year.