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Employers may pay holiday premiums as high as $2 an hour to get, keep warehouse talent, EmployBridge finds. As might be expected in an environment of strong economic demand and low employment, Santa will be more generous to warehouse labor this holiday season than in years past. Warehouse operators are prepared to offer as much as $2 an hour over prevailing average wages to attract and retain workers during the peak holiday season, according to an annual survey of nearly 16,000 hourly workers conducted by Atlanta-based Employ Bridge, whose units, which include ProLogistix, ResourceMFG, and Select, staff and manage hourly warehouse labor to companies nationwide. The $2-an-hour peak-season premium would be above the prevailing hourly rates for labor, according to Brian Devine, senior vice president at Employbridge and creator of the survey, now in its eleventh year. The average current wage is at $13.30 an hour, up from $12.54 an hour at this time in 2017, according to Devine. The average wage runs the gamut from an entry-level worker to a skilled lifttruck operator, he said. Devine cautioned that the $2 an hour premium is at the high-end of the premium-pay scale, noting that companies that either don’t have a holiday peak, or any peak at all for that matter, may pay nothing. Last year’s peak season premium averaged $1.02 an hour, Devine said. As has been the case every year since the survey was launched in 2007, pay ranked as the most important consideration among warehouse workers. For the first time, at least 65 percent of warehouse workers reported earning hourly rates of $12 or more. That compared to just 26 percent in 2014, according to the survey. Devine said $12 an hour has become the de facto minimum wage inside the four walls. Devine said there is […]