From CNET: Amazon is handing out pay raises and new benefits for its warehouse workers across the country. Amazon said its average starting wages are now $19 an hour, up from $18. Warehouse employees now earn between $16 and $26 an hour, depending on position and location.
Amazon's new benefit, Anytime Pay, allows workers to access their pay instantly at any time during the month. The online retail giant is also seeking to advance its workers' careers through the Amazon Intelligence Initiative, which will place 300,000 employees in a 12- to 14-month development program to place them in AWS engineering roles.
The news comes as some Amazon workers have been seeking to unionize and as the company faces criticism about working conditions in its warehouses. A 2021 study showed that Amazon workers are seriously injured at twice the rate of other warehouses. Four Amazon warehouse workers died in separate incidents this summer, prompting an investigation by the US Department of Labor.
Amazon earlier in September expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. "Each of these tragic incidents have affected our teams greatly, and we are providing resources for families and employees who need them," Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said at the time. "Our investigations are ongoing and we're cooperating with OSHA, which is conducting its own reviews of the events, as it often does in these situations."
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