Amazon is Hiring 17,000 With $1,000 Signing Bonus at $17 an Hour

Warehouse Hiring 

Hey Amazon detractors, Amazon Hiring 75,000 Workers, Offering Some $1,000 Signing Bonuses

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN is hiring 75,000 workers and offering $1,000 signing bonuses in some locations, the latest hiring spree in what has been a year of tremendous growth.

The retail and tech giant said the new roles—representing nearly 8% of its U.S. workforce—are offering average pay of $17 an hour, an increase over the company’s typical starting wage of $15 an hour. 

The company in April said it was raising wages for more than 500,000 hourly employees by between 50 cents and $3 an hour, an investment of more than $1 billion. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky has said that competition for employees will rise.

Amazon Employs Nearly a Million People

Amazon employs about 950,000 people in the US alone. That’s double what it was three years ago.

It is paying $15 an hour minimum in the US.

Amazon a Godsend

Amazon is a godsend. It lowers prices, makes things more affordable for everyone, and employs a million or so people.

Instead of rushing out to the store to buy something, if you can wait a day it will be delivered right to your door.

What About Critics?

Q: Will that silence its critics?
A: Of course not

Amazon critics will not be happy until the company is split up and founder Jeff Bezos is forced to give away his wealth.

Unionization Effort Failed

In April, I noted that By an Overwhelming Margin Alabama Amazon Workers Reject the Union.

The minimum wage in Alabama is $7.25 an hour. The union would collect dues while doing nothing for the employees.

Why I Hate Unions

For a discussion of issues on public and private unions please see my take Why I Hate Unions

Amazon Prevails in Another Tax Big Tech Case With The EU

Yesterday, I noted Amazon Prevails in Another Tax Big Tech Case With The EU

Critics and fools led by EU nannycrats want to break up Amazon and tax it to death. 

Mish

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RayLopez
RayLopez
2 years ago
Amazon has been a godsend…for my family’s real estate in the Washington DC area.  We got a few of their workers as tenants.  Love Amazon though I typically shop at cheaper places like Walmart, and I love New Yorkers too…for giving a raspberry to Amazon’s HQ2, resulting in their move to Arlington country, Virginia.  Thank you AOC and her followers!
LM2022
LM2022
2 years ago
Read a recent opinion piece by Charles Hugh Smith on this subject that really resonated with me.  The gist of it is: the pandemic has given a lot of people time to realize that struggling through the rat isn’t worth it when all the wealth and benefits go to the parasites, the Wall Street gamblers and the corporate overlords.  Even $17 an hour and signing bonus might not be enough to lure people back to a s#!tty dead end job at Amazon.
Tengen
Tengen
2 years ago
Reply to  LM2022
Good find, enjoyed the article as well. Used to read CHS more frequently and will start doing so again.
shamrock
shamrock
2 years ago
Nothing to see here, no inflation at all.
Doug78
Doug78
2 years ago
Is it a false demand for workers because of generous government pay-outs limiting supply or is it a sign of prosperity coming back after the Covid interlude? For the moment I vote for a temporary worker shortage. One thing I note is that this is a nightmare for big companies and that they are probably not going to look favorably on any type of guaranteed income scheme. I am sure that Bezos who before would have called his people in Congress to keep the the lockdown on because he was raking it in. Now is now calling them to lift it because his profits are eaten by payrolls. Expect to see more states opening up very rapidly.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
Wage inflation? There it is.
My mild criticism of Amazon is more around the loss of local commerce than it is any kind of Bezos envy. I love Amazon, but I don’t love all my local retail businesses to fold up because they can’t compete. But nobody in the younger generation cares about that, so it won’t matter. 
Walmart killed the mom&pops…now Amazon is giving Walmart a run for its money. I don’t shop Walmart much anyway, but I do like Sam’s and Costco and I shop there for both personal and business needs. I hope the competition keeps the prices low, but I hope the big box stores don’t get forced out.
njbr
njbr
2 years ago
Amazon has really effed up the construction market this year because of their construction program–the delivery dates for steel open-web roof joists and deck is almost 10 months out, as opposed to 6 weeks in a normal year because there are so many Amazon projects going on.  In addition to the steel price increases, there are shortages developing in certain steel sections and shapes.  So every other project is left waiting or has to make expensive changes.
In the end, no resumption of normality in retail, the decline will continue. 
jimmym
jimmym
2 years ago
Reply to  njbr
Not only has delivery time extended, but prices have doubled as well. A friend working for a major joist supplier told me that Amazon offered them millions of dollars to move their jobs up in the schedule. There is chaos in the metal building market as well. Delivery times are extending. There are shortages of components. The price of a buildings are up over 50% from 6 months ago and people who desperately need buildings are still ordering them. I am wondering how this will end. With a crash or slow shutdown? In the meantime being in the steel component business, we are trying to raise prices faster than our costs go up. When components increase 8 to 12% a month for several months, it is challenging. 
jimmym
jimmym
2 years ago
Reply to  jimmym
It is also more than just Amazon causing the issue. My theory is that material orders were delayed by COVID. Then when the orders started being released for production, the current demand for projects this year added to the backlog and then with multiple huge Amazon projects occurring at the same time, it has created unprecedented demand. In the case of metal building components, steel mills cut their production due to COVID and then demand skyrocketed as COVID shutdowns diminished. The mills are slow to ramp up production. 

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