Amazon Inc. said Tuesday it plans to hire an additional 125,000 warehouse workers nationwide with average starting hourly pay of $18.
According to Reuters, the first news outlet to report the latest hiring spree, the online retail giant has raised hourly pay from an average of roughly $17 since May, and some locations will offer $3,000 signing bonuses.
Amazon hiring 125,000 more warehouse workers — $3,000 signing bonus, starting pay $18/hour. https://t.co/mb2GGJc7gS
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 14, 2021
The new hires will include both full- and part-time positions, but no timeframe was provided.
Dave Bozeman, vice president of Amazon Delivery Services, told Reuters that the latest bonuses are triple what the company offered four months ago.
Amazon has hired 450,000 workers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and the company confirmed that the latest 125,000 roles are in addition to the 40,000 corporate and technology positions it opened two weeks ago, CNBC reported.
>> Related: Amazon to hire 55K for corporate, tech positions in coming months, new CEO says
According to the network, some of the pending hires could be compensated as much as $22.50 per hour once signing bonuses are considered.
Amazon, now the second-largest private U.S. employer, set a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2018. Meanwhile, retail behemoth Walmart Inc. confirmed recently that its hourly wages have reached $16.40, while pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc said it plans to raise its minimum to $15 in October, Reuters reported.
>> Related: Walgreens raising minimum hourly pay to $15 beginning in October
“It’s a tight labor market, and we’ve seen some of that as the entire industry is seeing,” Bozeman told the news outlet during an interview at a delivery station in Tukwila, Washington.
The new hires, he said, will help run 100 logistics and distribution facilities launching nationwide this month, on top of more than 250 the company opened earlier this year.
“The 125,000 (warehouse workers) is really to help us keep up with our growth,” Bozeman told Reuters.
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