Amazon has offered up to $5,000 to its warehouse employees to quit their jobs, CNN Money reported.
While the Internet retailer is in the process of adding workers and locations, the "Pay to Quit" program was granted as an attempt to verify whether the company's employees really wished to be there.
The offer was announced by CEO Jeff Bezos through a letter handed out to shareholders on late Thursday.
"The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want," he wrote in the letter. "In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don't want to be isn't healthy for the employee or the company."
Ironically, the offer letter's headline, "Please Don't Take This Offer," pleads for the employee not to leave.
Once a year, Amazon offers its associates and employees a chance to quit their jobs. According to CNN Money, at first, employees are offered $2,000 to quit. That offer is increased by $1,000 each year until the amount hits $5,000.
Zappos, the online footwear and clothing retailer, was responsible for Benzo getting the idea, he said. Even though Zappos was purchased by Amazon in 2009, it continues to be a separate unit and operates from the main Amazon site.
"Amazon is in the process of adding warehouses, known as 'fulfillment centers' so that it can cut delivery times to customers," CNN Money reported. "Today is has 96 such locations. Company filings show it had 117,300 full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year, up by nearly a third from its employment level a year earlier."
The salary of Amazon warehouse workers has never been shared by Amazon, who only confirms that it pays about 30% more than a typical retail worker.
But about $12 an hour, which comes to just about $25,000 for a full year, is paid to the company's warehouse workers, according to data gathered last year by career website Glassdoor.com.
