Amazon to put health benefits in holiday workers' stockings on Day One
The company is not mentioning bonuses but is focusing more on paid leave and mental health benefits.
Amazon — a company that has become a symbol of what’s right and wrong with the American workplace — is focusing on the value of the employee benefits it offers seasonal workers in a hiring update.
The Seattle-based distributor and technology services provider is hiring 250,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers, according to a blog post by Sandy Gordon, an Amazon executive.
“All seasonal employees earn at least $18 per hour and have access to benefits like health care from the first day on the job,” according to the teaser at the top of the article.
Amazon appears to be hiring about the same number of people it was hiring at this point in 2023. Gordon did not mention signing bonuses.
In 2023, Amazon staffers said the seasonal workers would earn $17 to $28 per hour. Staffers said signing bonuses could range from $1,000 to $3,000 in some locations.
In 2022, Amazon said it would be hiring 150,000 seasonal workers with average earnings of about $19 per hour. It said it offered “excellent pay and benefits” but did not describe the benefits.
The new update: This year, average total compensation for fulfillment and transportation employees will be “more than $29 per hour when you include the value of their elected benefits (things like health care from the first day on the job),” Gordon writes.
The 2023 hiring update listed the types of benefits its employees get. Gordon’s new update lists the same types of benefits and adds links to information about a mental health benefit and about the company’s paid pregnancy and parental leave.
The backdrop: These days, labor groups and media organizations seem to be making more use of Amazon than Walmart to serve as an example of issues of interest, such as workplace safety, overtime rules, job security, wages and benefits.
It made headlines recently when it required employees to work in the office five days a week and over allegations that company investigators contacted employees’ health care providers to verify that the employees who were staying home with COVID-19 really had COVID.
Related: Amazon now requiring employees to be in office 5 days a week
The company has also been ramping up marketing of a business of its own that provides primary care and urgent care services to its own employees and other employers’ employees through a combination of a brick-and-mortar offices and telehealth systems.
The latest Amazon update could be a sign that employers will be talking a little less about cash offers when recruiting and a little more about benefits.