Amazon is giving another pay boost to its contract delivery drivers in the US amid growing union pressure.
Drivers working with Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs, will earn an average of about $22 an hour, a 7% bump from the previous average of $20.50, the company said Thursday.
The salary increase is part of a new $2.1 billion investment the Seattle-based online retailer is making in the delivery system. Amazon does not directly hire drivers but relies on thousands of third-party businesses that deliver millions of customer packages every day.
The company also offered American drivers a salary bonus last year. Last week, it also said it would increase wages for UK workers by 9.8% or more.
Amazon said the DSP program has created 390,000 driver jobs since 2018 and its $12 billion in total funding since then will help with safety programs and provide incentives to participating businesses.
US labor regulators are taking a closer look at Amazon’s business model, which has put a wedge between the company and the workers who drive its gray-blue vans.
The Teamsters and other labor groups have argued that Amazon has too much control over contract workers, including determining their routes, setting delivery goals and monitoring their performance. They say that the company should be included under the joint employer under the eyes of the law, which Amazon is against.
However, labor regulators are increasingly biased towards the company.
Last week, the prosecutor of the National Labor Relations Board in Atlanta decided that Amazon should be jointly arrested for allegedly threatening and other illegal statements to DSP drivers who want to meet in the city. Meanwhile, NLRB prosecutors in Los Angeles ruled last month that Amazon is a joint employer of contract drivers who deliver the company’s packages in California.
If a resolution is not reached in those cases, the agency can choose to bring a complaint against Amazon, which can be heard during the NLRB’s administrative law process. Amazon has the option of appealing the judge’s order to an agency board and ultimately, to a federal court.
-Hallelujah Hadero, AP Business Writer
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