Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has raised US warehouse and transportation workers’ average starting pay by just over a dollar an hour, costing roughly US$1bn over the next year.
The online retail behemoth said it will be hiking starting wages to "more than US$19 per hour" from US$18.
Its minimum hourly wage for US employees remained at US$15, but depending on their role and location, some US workers could earn up to US$26 an hour.
Amazon, which reported US$121mln of revenue in its latest quarter, is making the move amid a tightening American labour market as its peak season begins, with Black Friday and Christmas coming up.
It has also been seeing increased interest in unionisation among its lowest-paid workers, with the first union formed at its Staten Island warehouse in July and a new Amazon arm set up by the Teamsters union earlier this month.
The Seattle-headquartered group had more than 1.5mln full and part-time employees globally at the end of June, with the majority in the States.
Alongside the pay increase Amazon said it was adding "a new benefit that enables employees to collect their pay at any point during the month", for all employees across its US operations, corporate and technology networks.