Amazon draws on non-profit volunteers for gift-wrapping staff
In an unusual move that expands its holiday fulfillment staff while supporting non-profit organizations, Amazon.com Inc. is paying non-profit volunteers about $12 to $15 per hour to wrap gifts for its customers.
Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is inviting non-profit organizations to send teams of 5 to 20 volunteers for each shift at its New Castle, DE, fulfillment center, where the volunteers can earn for their respective organizations between 60 and 75 cents for each gift-wrapped item. Individual gift-wrappers can average 20 or more wrapped items per hour, amounting to an hourly take of about $12 to $15, Amazon says.
Amazon, which isn’t revealing how its compensation for volunteer gift-wrapping compares to what it pays its employees, says that volunteers who participated in the program last year earned a total of about $11,000 for their organizations.
The work isn’t easy, however. Amazon trains the volunteers in Amazon’s gift-wrapping procedures. Amazon warns that volunteers, who must be at least 18 years old, “must be physically able to stand throughout the shift.” Shifts range from 4 to 10 hours, it adds.
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