Tag Archives: CMG

Business

Amazon to Hire 125,000 Workers With Average Starting Pay at $18 an Hour

Leave a comment

Text size

The logo of Amazon at a distribution center.


Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images


Amazon.com

is hiring more than 125,000 drivers and warehouse workers and will pay them a starting average wage of more than $18 an hour —and up to $22.50 in some places, the internet retailer announced Tuesday.

The jobs will be both part time and full time, and in all regions of the country—from Arizona and Indiana to New Jersey and Florida.

Workers in certain locations also will get a sign-on bonus of up to $3,000, which shows just how competitive the job market is. Amazon (ticker: AMZN) didn’t specify the locations where either the bonus or the higher wage will be paid.

Amazon now pays one of the highest minimum wages—if not the highest—by a U.S. retailer. In 2018, the tech giant established a minimum wage of $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

In the past few years, other retailers and consumer-based companies have raised their minimum wages. This year alone,

Walmart

(WMT),

Costco Wholesale

(COST),

Chipotle Mexican Grill

(CMG), and

McDonald’s

(MCD) have increased their starting pay.

Amazon let one of its warehouse workers in Miami speak to the benefits of its higher pay.

“Before Amazon, I was at a car wash making $9 an hour. Then I came to Amazon and I started earning $15 an hour—it was life-changing for me,” said Leonardo, who the company didn’t identify by his last name.

Amazon is on a hiring spree. At the beginning of September, the company announced it will fill 40,000 corporate and technology jobs; since the pandemic began in March 2020, Amazon has hired more than 450,000 people in the U.S.  

Tuesday’s announcement ties in with its offer last week to pay 100% of college tuition for more than 750,000 U.S. employees.

Also read: This Robot Trader Just Turned Bullish on Amazon, Facebook and Nvidia. Here’s What It Sold.

Amazon shares closed down 0.21%, to $3,450, on Tuesday. The stock has gained almost 6% so far this year and has risen 9.3% over the past 12 months, lagging the

S&P 500’s

18% and 31% gains over the same periods.

Write to editors@barrons.com

Read original article here

Business

15 CEOs Reflect on Their Pandemic Year and the Lessons They’ve Learned

Leave a comment

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Chris Nassetta worked from home in Arlington, Va., with his wife, six daughters and two dogs for two weeks before returning to the hotel chain’s nearly empty headquarters for the rest of the past year. Sharmistha Dubey has been leading Match Group Inc. from her dining room table near Dallas. Herman Miller ’s Andi Owen has her dog Finn to keep her company while working from her home office in Grand Rapids, Mich. Moderna Inc. CEO Stéphane Bancel relishes twice-daily 30-minute walks between his home in Boston and the vaccine maker’s Cambridge offices, where he resumed working in August, so he can crystallize his priorities and reflect on the day. The Wall Street Journal photographed them and 11 other business leaders in their pandemic office spaces as they discussed the past year and what’s to come.

More than a year after the coronavirus upended the way we work, the business leaders said they have found that more communication, flexibility and transparency have been crucial in staying connected to their employees.

Heads of companies across sectors including finance, hospitality and technology spoke from their current workspaces about what they’ve learned from the largely remote year, what challenges they faced and what changes they plan to leave in place during the next phase of work.

Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, predicted his schedule will remain less hectic after the pandemic is over: “Personally, I can’t see myself reflexively flying cross-country for an hour-long presentation or meeting.”

Read original article here