A Breakdown of Amazon Warehouse’s Full Time Benefits

Amazon offers many generous benefits to its warehouse employees - excellent health insurance, tuition reimbursement, generous time off options, even assistance with childcare. 

In this post, we will cover all the benefits offered to full-time Amazon Warehouse Associates, compare them to part-time (PT) associates’ benefits, and compare them to the benefits offered by other jobs.

These benefits apply to full-time warehouse associates. For a list of job titles that fall under this category, you can read our post on job titles. 

While pay varies by shift, benefits don’t. Associates on all different shifts get the same benefits.

Note that Reduced Time (RT) and FlexRT associates get all the same benefits that full-time associates do, while FlexPT associates get the same (very limited) benefits as PT associates. 

Also note that this post applies to blue badge (non-seasonal) positions only. Seasonal workers’ benefits are also very limited.

Who is “full time”?

Amazon is well known for treating entry level employees fairly, and this is reflected in their benefits for FT employees. 

FT employees are those who work a minimum of 40 hours and a maximum of 60 hours/week, while PT employees work up to 20 hours/week. 

We’ve written a separate post on how many hours certain position types work per week you can review for more information.

Excellent health, dental, and vision Insurance

Amazon offers some of the highest quality health insurance in the country to its full-time employees. The premiums are fairly low, the deductibles are also low (depending on which plan you pick), and there are many different plans available. 

Quality dental insurance and vision insurance is also provided to all blue badge FT associates. Another thing that distinguishes Amazon’s insurance from that of other employers is the Day 1 availability - no 90 day wait time.

Other health benefits

Medical Advice Line

Amazon has a medical advice line for all associates that are eligible for health insurance. Not sure whether to see a doctor? The medical advice line can guide you on what to do.

Mental Health & Substance Abuse

Amazon’s EAP provides 5 free counseling sessions per year, as well as what your health insurance covers. Additionally, Amazon has a partnership with Brightline to provide mental health help to your children. 

Substance abuse diagnosis and treatment services are also available to Amazon associates and their families. 

Online Physical Therapy

Amazon partners with Hinge Health to offer digital physical therapy at no cost to FT associates

Educational benefits

Career Choice Program

One of Amazon’s most popular benefits is the Career Choice program. This benefit allows you to have up to $5,250 of your tuition, certification, or other schooling & vocational training costs paid for by Amazon per calendar year. 

PT associates receive half of this amount.

Student Accommodations & ESWB

Amazon offers a “student accommodation” to student associates. The accommodation allows you to work up to 10 hours less per week while still maintaining your regular position. 

Amazon also allows students to take Educational Short Work Breaks (ESWBs), by which you can take up to 12 weeks off for school, up to 4 times per year.

Generous time off options

UPT, PTO, Vacation Time, Holiday Pay

Amazon associates earn roughly 2 hours of PTO per week (up to a max of 48 hours), 5 minutes of unpaid time off (UPT) per hour worked, and 45 minutes to 135 minutes per week of vacation time (depending on tenure). 

FT associates also get paid for holidays whether or not they work, and get paid 1.5x their base rate on top of that for all hours they do work.

VTO & VET

Amazon frequently makes Voluntary Time Off (VTO) available. This allows you to take time off without using any of your accrued time off, giving associates a great deal of flexibility. 

Additionally, Voluntary Extra Time (VET) allows you to earn more UPT and make more money at overtime rates. 

Leaves of Absence

As well as the standard leave of absence options (paternity/maternity, medical, military, child-related), FT associates can take unpaid personal leave of absences (PLOAs). 

These must be at least 15 days but no more than 45 days, and require 15 days’ notice. They can be used for virtually anything. 

Financial security & retirement

Financial Security

Amazon gives FT associates basic life insurance and AD&D insurance at no cost, with the option to buy more, as well as disability insurance. 

Life or AD&D insurance for your spouse/domestic partner and children is also available to buy, as is critical illness and personal accident insurance. 

Lastly, Amazon has partners that can help you make a budget & save for emergencies or goals.

Retirement/401k

All employees, not just full-timers, get a 401k plan. Amazon provides a contribution of 50 cents for each dollar you contribute, up to a maximum of 2% of your pay per paycheck.

Legal services

Full-time associates can opt into a group legal plan through MetLife. This benefit provides access to experienced attorneys with a wide range of legal expertise, fully paid for by the group plan. 

It also provides access to online will creation & estate planning services.

Family benefits

A variety of benefits are available to help associates with families.

Childcare & Eldercare Resources & Discounts

Amazon offers discounts for and resources on childcare and eldercare.

Maternity/Paternity Support & Leave

Amazon’s health insurance provides full support to pregnant women before, during, and after the child is born. 

Leave of absences are also available if you or your partner are experiencing pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or recent childbirth; as well as for bonding with your child.

Fertility & Adoption Assistance

Amazon provides coverage for fertility services and adoption expenses through Progyny, and leave of absences are available for those undergoing fertility treatments or who have recently adopted.

Direct stock purchase plan

Full-time associates may purchase Amazon stock through the direct stock purchase plan (DSPP).

The main draw of this benefit is that it allows you to purchase Amazon stock without any fees, however you will still have to pay fees for selling stock.

Other benefits

There are a few other miscellaneous benefits that don’t warrant a full section. These include:

Employee Discount Code

Associates get a discount code that can be used on Amazon.com on items sold and shipped by Amazon only. It provides a discount of 10%, up to $100 per year.

Pet Benefits

Associates get discounts on pet insurance, pet services, and pet supplies; as well as help finding quality pet sitters.

Commuter

Amazon provides some amount of payment towards public transit and/or rideshare costs.

Amazon Extras

Amazon Extras is Amazon’s discount program for a variety of goods and services. A few examples are auto insurance, home & renters insurance, and fitness services (such as a gym membership).

Intangible benefits of working at Amazon

While the official and tangible benefits are very important, there are also some intangible benefits of working at Amazon over other companies.

Reliable Schedule & Job Security

When working at Amazon, your schedule is very reliable - you are guaranteed a full 40 hours (or 30, 36, etc.) a week; no surprise hour cuts or forced time off. 

You also will always have a fair amount of job security. Amazon associates will be necessary and in demand for the foreseeable future, and good associates can be hard to find - so you will likely have your job as long as you want it.

Flexibility

Between the generous time off options, VTO and VET, and sympathetic HR, working at Amazon gives you a lot of schedule flexibility. 

If you want to work more, you can (up to 60 hours per week), and if you need to take time off, you can do that too.

Opportunities for Advancement

Amazon offers advancement opportunities. The vast majority of Process Assistants (PAs) & Shift Assistants (two important L3 positions) are hired from the pool of experienced and skilled L1 associates, and L4 Area Managers are sometimes promoted from the pool of PAs. 

Additionally, the Career Choice program allows you to obtain certifications or degrees that then qualify you to be promoted into a different career track (such as IT or Reliability & Maintenance Engineering).

Full-Time vs. Part-Time benefits

While PT associates’ benefits are very limited, they still get certain ones.

Dental/Vision Insurance & Medical Expense Benefit

While PT workers don’t get medical insurance, they are provided dental and vision insurance. These don’t require the (minimal) paycheck contributions that the FT dental and vision plans do. 

PT associates also get a benefit of $500/yr for medical expenses, split over all paychecks into around $10 extra per paycheck.

Career Choice

PT associates get half the Career Choice tuition benefit that FT associates do - $2,625 per year.

401k

PT associates are still able to contribute to a 401k, however they don’t receive employer contributions.

Time Off

Part-time associates receive 2 hours of PTO per week (up to a maximum of half the amount that FT associates do, or 24 hours) and between 22 minutes and 1 hour of vacation time per week (depending on tenure). 

Work done on holidays is paid at 1.5x base hourly rate, however PT associates don’t get paid for holidays if they don’t work, nor do they get their base hourly pay for the full shift on top of 1.5x pay for hours worked.

Compared to other jobs

In general, Amazon’s benefits are superior to those of most other jobs. The lack of a 90 day waiting period before one can receive benefits is a big plus. 

While many jobs have some of the same benefits as Amazon does, Amazon has most of them beat in terms of the benefit quality. The health insurance is better than that of almost all other employers, the leave policies are some of the most generous for entry level positions, and few companies have a discount program as wide-ranging as Amazon’s.

Amazon also offers a few benefits that stand out as not commonly offered by other employers. These include legal services and the additional mental & physical health benefits.

Tradeoffs for going Full-Time

While Amazon’s full-time benefits are excellent, they come at a cost. Overall, the balance weighs toward FT’s benefits over PT’s lesser work commitments (unless your obligations make you unable to work FT). 

The main tradeoffs for going full-time over part-time include:

Longer Schedule

The most obvious one is that full time positions require far more hours per week. Full-time positions require 40 hours, while part-time are 0-29 hours. 

A good middle ground between hours per week and benefits is a Reduced Time position - RT workers get all the same benefits that FT associates do.

Mandatory Extra Time

Occasionally, during the highest-volume times of year, Amazon sites require associates to participate in Mandatory Extra Time (MET). All FT & RT employees must participate. This can entail up to 6 10-hour shifts in one week.

Part-time associates are exempt from MET.

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