Amazon Is Hiking Hourly Workers' Pay A Month Early Amid Controversy

Amazon.com Inc AMZN said on Wednesday it is pulling forward the annual fall pay review by a month to increase the salaries of hourly workers. 

What Happened: More than 500,000 Amazon hourly workers will get raises, which range from 50 cents to $3 an hour, a month early, the e-commerce giant wrote in a blog post. These increases will be rolled out from mid-May through early June.

Amazon is spending over $1 billion in incremental pay for the employees at its logistics division. 

The company said other teams are continuing with their regular annual compensation review plans throughout the remainder of 2021.

Why It Matters: Amazon earlier this month courted controversy over the issue of workers needing to pee into bottles. The e-commerce giant denied that its fulfillment centers have problems with workers and restroom breaks while acknowledging that its drivers may have trouble finding restrooms "because of traffic or sometimes rural routes" especially during the pandemic, but later issued an apology.

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Amazon is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday after market close. The pandemic is expected to continue to drive up Amazon’s e-commerce as well as its streaming businesses.

For the first quarter of 2021, analysts expect Amazon’s revenue to increase 21% year-over-year to $107.9 billion and for its adjusted EPS to rise approximately 5% to $10.78.

Price Action: Amazon shares closed 1.20% higher at $3458.50 on Wednesday and were up 0.9% in after-hours trading.

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