Amazon raising base pay to more than $22 an hour

Amazon is raising the base pay for its employees, investing more than $2.2 billion in its workforce.

The base pay will go up at least $1.50 to more than $22 an hour for workers in fulfillment and transportation jobs, Reuters reported. That will be about $3,000 additional each year for people working 40 hours a week.

The company said that when you factor in benefits, the pay is more than $29 an hour.

Some of the benefits are being updated. Language classes will be available to employees on day one, instead of making them wait months to become eligible. Starting next year, Prime will also become a benefit for employees, meaning that they won’t have to pay for the service as long as they are employed by Amazon.

Amazon has more than 800,000 employees in the U.S., the company said.