Employees at Amazon’s Salt Lake City distribution center learned Wednesday morning they are getting a raise — and a bigger one than most of their associates nationwide.
Amazon is increasing hourly wages for all distribution and transportation employees companywide by an average of $1.50 an hour, the technology giant announced early Wednesday.
In Utah’s capital, hourly employees will all make an additional $2.25 an hour starting in October, or roughly $4,000 more a year.
The news was met with raucous applause, fist bumps and some tears Wednesday morning, first at a 4 a.m. announcement to the night shift and again to the 7:30 a.m. day-shift employees.
“This is changing lives,” said Andres Martinez, a human resources associate partner who has been at Salt Lake City’s Amazon operation for two years.
Almost as exciting — based on the volume of cheers at the 7:30 morning meeting — was the addition of a new benefit: hourly employees will now all get Amazon Prime for free.
“It’s something associates have been asking for for years,” said Salt Lake City General Manager Victoria Le.
Amazon does a wage review every year, Le said, and wages have risen every year since 2018. But this is the first big boost Amazon has unrolled in recent memory. It’s roughly a 12% jump, and, at $2.2 billion, is the biggest investment in wages in company history, according to an announcement on Amazon’s website from Vice President of Worldwide Operations Udit Madan. Madan was the one to break the news to the night shift.
The increase brings Amazon’s average base wage to roughly $22 per hour, , according to Madan, or more than $29 an hour including benefits.
Le could not say why, exactly, Salt Lake City’s distribution Center (SLC1, on company-issued, highlighter yellow safety vests), gets an above-average raise. But, she added, they deserve it.
“They work so hard,” Le said, “and they are so amazing.”
Employment at SLC1has grown steadily by roughly 10% a year, Le said. Today, more than 3,000 people work at the facility, which was Amazon’s first operation in Utah and remains its biggest. The center “turned 6” in August, said Le, who has worked there since day one.
“We’re awesome,” Le said. “We genuinely have fun here. We work hard, but we have fun.”
(Shannon Sollitt | Salt Lake Tribune) Andres Martinez poses at the Amazon distribution center in Salt Lake City on Sept. 18, 2024. Andres said pay increases announced for hourly employees Wednesday will "change lives."
Amazon has faced scrutiny for its labor practices in recent years — the Department of Labor has issued citations at six warehouse locations for unsafe working conditions — as well for its refusal to recognize a union two years after Staten Island warehouse employees voted for it. Delivery drivers in New York this week also voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and are demanding, according to the Teamsters, better wages and working conditions.
Martinez, meanwhile, said benefits like the company’s career-choice program, which is helping him cover tuition costs to study business administration at the University of Utah, make Amazon “one of the best employers” in the country.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
