The company is preparing operations staff for a spike in holiday orders amid the pandemic
Amazon has unveiled plans to spend more than US$500m on bonuses for staff who are scheduled to work during the holidays amid the threat of COVID-19.
The ecommerce giant said it will reward US-based full-time employees with a $300 one-time bonus and part-time employees $150 for reporting to work between Dec 1 and 31.
The company announced the incentives as it prepares operations staff for a spike in orders during the holiday shopping season.
“As we head into the peak of the holiday season, we want to share our appreciation through another special recognition bonus, totalling more than $500m for our frontline employees,” said Dave Clark, SVP of Amazon Worldwide Operations.
Read more: Amazon offers one-time bonuses to appease frontline workers
“Combined with other holiday pay incentives, in this quarter alone we are investing over $750m in additional pay for our frontline hourly workforce, on top of our industry-leading $15 national minimum wage,” Clark said.
“This brings our total spent on special bonuses and incentives for our teams globally to over $2.5bn in 2020, including a $500m thank-you bonus earlier this year.”
Amazon is touted as one of the winners in this new business climate precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic. In the second quarter of 2020 – when governments across regions began implementing stay-at-home orders – the company doubled its net profit to $5.2bn, from $2.6bn in 2019.
“Our teams are doing amazing work serving customers’ essential needs, while also helping to bring some much-needed holiday cheer for socially-distanced families around the world. I’ve never been more grateful for – or proud of – our teams,” Clark said.