Amazon’s warehouse workers and contract delivery drivers are getting a pay bump, with the former getting a Prime subscription thrown in with their compensation.
Starting in September, Amazon’s average base pay for U.S. warehouse workers will increase to an average of more than $22 an hour, up from roughly $20.50 an hour. Including benefits like health care, dental coverage and a 401(k) average, total compensation can tick up to more than $29 per hour, the company said.
In early 2025, all hourly U.S. warehouse staff will get free access to Prime, which typically costs a customer $139 per year, as long as they work for Amazon.
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Contract delivery drivers are getting the same hourly increase as part of Amazon’s recently announced $2.1 billion investment into its delivery service partner program. The partnership has taken plenty of criticism recently from unions, U.S. lawmakers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and in some cases, the contracted drivers themselves.
Both wage increases come as Amazon prepares to host its fall version of Prime Day, Prime Big Deal Days, on Oct. 8-9. The shopping extravaganza will likely be the start of a busy stretch of months for the e-commerce giant as the holiday season creeps up in the weeks after.
Some workers feel the pay hike isn’t enough, and remain critical of the working conditions at its warehouses.
More than 800 workers at two Amazon facilities near St. Louis signed a petition demanding that the company increase minimum wages to $25 per hour, two months after New York-based employees organized petitions across five warehouses.
Ahead of Amazon’s announcement of the wage increases Wednesday, roughly 75 employees marched at the company’s St. Peters, Mo. warehouse as part of their campaign for better pay and the incorporation of performance-based bonuses.
Amazon unveils updates to supply chain, fulfillment and returns services
The warehouse wage bump and ensuing demonstration comes as the Big Tech firm expanded its slew of seller tools at its Accelerate seller conference in Seattle and touted the growth of some of its fulfillment services launched in 2023.
Amazon will offer a more automated version of its Supply Chain by Amazon feature, which is designed to enable sellers to offload their logistics needs onto the tech titan, whether it be inventory storage and replenishment, ground transportation and delivery.
The update will come with deeper forecasting capabilities, and can now manage the flows between these supply chain services automatically.
Previously, sellers had to individually choose which services to use and manage all product flows. But with Amazon’s predictive analytics capabilities, sellers can provide product details and pickup locations and Amazon oversees the rest based on demand, inventory levels and costs.
“Hundreds of thousands” of third-party sellers already use at least one of these Supply Chain by Amazon services, according to Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. In a Wednesday blog post, he said the number of companies that adopted multiple services tripled in the first half of 2024.
Sellers using Supply Chain by Amazon qualify to get a 25 percent discount for storage fees and a 15 percent reduction in transportation and processing costs.
Amazon also is introducing several new features to its Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service, which enables merchants to leverage the company’s fulfillment network to deliver products sold on their own website, or other e-commerce marketplaces
Over 200,000 U.S. merchants use Amazon MCF, with the service fulfilling 70 percent more total orders year-to-date than the same period in 2023.
Amazon MCF has now reduced its standard delivery option from five business days to three business days at no extra cost to merchants, and can have those deliveries made seven days per week.
The service now offers “fast badges” for merchant websites, similar to those attached to third-party websites that leverage the Buy with Prime offering. With the badge, merchants can show a dynamic, real-time delivery estimate on their website.
This month, merchants will also be able to show an estimated delivery date in their Google Shopping ads and search results, as well as in their TikTok ads.
Finally, Amazon is offering new services for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) users that can help them manage product returns more efficiently.
Grade and Resell is an optional program for items that are returned to Amazon’s return centers designed to help extend the life of returned products. Before an item can be sold through the program, Amazon conduct a comprehensive inspection to test the condition of each item and provide a detailed description of its condition to make it easier for customers to make a more informed purchase decision.
Additionally, U.S. sellers can now enroll in FBA Returnless Resolutions, which enables them to grant refunds without requiring the customer to physically return the item.
