The company revealed Thursday that Amazon is giving front-line staff a one-time incentive to express its gratitude for their efforts going into the peak of the holiday season.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of retail operations, said in a blog post that full-time operations employees who are hired by the company will receive a $300 bonus from December 1 to December 31. A $150 bonus would be earned from part-time employees working within the same timeframe.
“I’ve been to Amazon for 22 holiday seasons and to say the least, this one is definitely unique,” Clark said. “I thank our teams for continuing to play a vital role in serving their communities.”
It will invest more than $500 million on one-time holiday payments, Amazon reported. Amazon has spent $500 million in June on “Thank You” incentives for front-line workers who continued to come to work in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Since March, the company has invested billions of dollars on improvements related to coronavirus, including pay raises, protective gear and better cleaning measures, as well as on building up research capability. At the height of the pandemic, Amazon issued temporary wage raises and double overtime pay, but all of those benefits expired in June.
Since then, factory employees have voiced anger that even though the pandemic has continued and they also face heightened health and safety threats in the workplace, their hazard compensation has been diminished. Amazon announced in October that between March 1 and Sept. 19, more than 19,000 of its front-line staff in the U.S. contracted the coronavirus.
In order to help meet increased demand” from internet orders, which has since stabilized, Amazon defended its decision to end wage rises and double overtime pay, saying both pay premiums were revealed.
As the holiday buying season heats up, stores such as Walmart and Target have already paid out incentives to their staff.