By Jonathan Capriel
March 16, 2020
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has its own economic stimulus plan for the global pandemic that has ground the economy to a near halt: Give laid-off and furloughed hospitality workers jobs delivering Prime packages.
The e-commerce company will hire an additional 100,000 workers in the United States and temporarily boost wages for current employees by $2 per hour, Amazon said late Monday. Amazon’s minimum wage sits at $15 per hour for fulfillment and delivery workers, and it will increase to $17 per hour through April under the new initiative.
Tens of thousands of part- and full-time delivery and fulfillment center employees are needed to help deal with the intense backlog of customer orders, which is “unprecedented for this time of year,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, wrote in a blog post.