Amazon raises pay for frontline workers as holiday season approaches

Amazon is trying to draw more workers into the labor market as the busy holiday shopping season approaches.

The average starting salary for frontline workers will be raised from $18 to $19 an hour.

Warehouse and transportation workers would earn between $16 and $26 an hour, depending on their position and location in the U.S.

The minimum wage at Amazon will be $15 an hour.

As of June, 1.5 million workers were employed.

The company is the latest retailer to offer holiday deals earlier this year to entice consumers with tighter budgets.

The event will be held on October 11 and 12.

The event will be the first time Amazon will hold a major sales event in a year, following its annual Prime Day in July.

The company is offering a pay bump as it struggles with a growing unionization movement inside its warehouses, due to worker complaints over pay and working conditions.

Amazon warehouse workers in upstate New York will vote in a union election next month, following an organizing drive spearheaded by the Amazon Labor UnionAmazon Labor Union, the grassroots group of former and current Amazon workers who pulled off a union win at a Staten Island warehouse in April.

Amazon had raised its hourly pay to $18 an hour last year.