Amazon said Tuesday it’s hiring 250,000 employees in the U.S. to help manage the holiday rush. It’s also bumping the average hourly pay for warehouse and delivery workers.
Amazon typically boosts its headcount around the peak holiday shopping season, bringing on hordes of temporary workers so it can better keep up with the surge in demand.
The holiday hiring number is a significant step up from previous years. Last year, the company said it would bring on 150,000 people to staff up for the holidays.
The hires will include full-time, part-time and seasonal warehouse and delivery employees, Amazon said. Hourly wages for those roles will range between $17 and $28, and the company is offering sign-on bonuses worth $1,000 to $3,000 in some locations.
The company said warehouse and delivery employees will now make $20.50 an hour on average, up from $19 an hour. Amazon announced the delivery driver wage hikes last week at its conference for members of its contracted delivery partner program.
Amazon has gradually raised the average starting pay for its frontline workforce in recent years amid growing labor tensions. Warehouse and delivery workers have taken steps to organize at several facilities, while lawmakers and advocacy groups have criticized its warehouse injury record, among other things.
With the latest pay hike, some locations will offer employees up to $28 an hour, Amazon said.
Amazon, which is the second-largest employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, had approximately 1.46 million employees globally as of the end of the second quarter.
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