Amazon warehouse workers are getting free Prime and a pay raise

Amazon’s warehouse workers, who are critical to the company’s ability to get you things fast via Amazon Prime, will soon get Prime subscriptions as part of their employment. The new perk was revealed along with other benefit updates, including an average pay raise, announced by the company on Wednesday.

The free Prime subscription will be part of the benefits package for “front-line” workers starting “early next year,” according to a blog post. Amazon defines its frontline workers as those who work in its warehouses on shipping goods and supporting its transportation network, according to Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson. Frontline workers will have free Prime for “as long as they are a part of the Amazon team,” the company says in the blog post. Amazon Prime typically costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year.

As for pay, Amazon says that the frontline workers will be getting “at least” $1.50 more per hour beginning next month, which the company claims will bring the average base wage for these workers up to more than $22 per hour. The move follows a $2.1 billion investment in its Delivery Service Partner program announced last week to help those partners increase pay for their delivery drivers to “a national average of nearly $22.00 per hour.”

Amazon also offers language classes through a program called Career Choice, and now, instead of having to wait 90 days to be able to enroll, frontline workers can sign up for them “from day one.”

Amazon has raised pay for warehouse workers several times over the past few years. The company is announcing this latest raise ahead of its October Prime Day event.

Correction, September 18th: An earlier version of this article misstated that delivery drivers will receive the free Prime benefit.