(The Hill) — Amazon announced Tuesday that it will hire a quarter million new workers starting this month as the holiday shopping season nears.
The company is also raising the starting pay for the new full-time, part-time and seasonal workers to an average of $20.50 per hour, it said.
“Whether someone is looking for a short-term way to make extra money, or is hoping to take their first step toward a fulfilling and rewarding career at Amazon, there’s a role available for them,” senior vice president John Felton said in a statement.
Amazon begins a mass hiring wave every fall in preparation for the holidays. The company claimed record sales in the long weekend after Thanksgiving last year, topping at least $1 billion.
A Bloomberg analysis found that Amazon sales increased 9 percent in the 2022 holiday season from a year before, which is a 78 percent increase compared to 2019 figures. That outpaced nearly every brick-and-mortar retailer, with the exception of Walmart.
The company, however, has been under fire over allegations of poor working conditions in its warehouses. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced a Senate investigation into Amazon in June.
Multiple Amazon warehouses attempted to unionize last year, some of them successfully. The company spent about $14 million on anti-labor advocacy, according to Labor Department filings.
Amazon says it has improved on-the-job safety training this year and is hiring for roles all across the workforce — from picking and packing to delivery drivers.