Whole Foods Market is offering its employees enhanced overtime and bonuses for hours worked during the busy holiday season.
The grocery chain, which has 10 stores across Canada, is providing hourly store and facility employees enhanced overtime equivalent to two-times base wage and a one-time “appreciation” bonus for hours worked between Oct. 4, 2021 and Jan. 2, 2022. The one-time bonus is equivalent to $2 per hour for employees and $3 per hour for team leaders.
Read: Walmart Canada giving employees ‘appreciation’ bonus
In the last few months of 2020, during the first holiday season amid a global pandemic, a range of employers with frontline employees, including Sobeys Inc. and Walmart Canada Corp., offered “appreciation” bonuses.
Whole Foods’ is also providing at least $15 per hour, or more for workers with experience, at its Canadian stores. Additionally, it’s promoting its “most famous benefit” — a 20 per cent in-store discount that can increase to 30 per cent after six months of service — on clapboard signs outside some of its stores. The Amazon.com Inc.-owned chain also promotes health benefits, volunteer opportunities and career and development opportunities for full-time employees on its website.
Read: Starbucks Canada perking up benefits, pay amid ‘critical staffing shortages’
Its parent company, Amazon, has been beefing up its pay and benefits in North America amid stiff competition for frontline workers during the ongoing pandemic. And other retailers and restaurants, including Starbucks Canada, have increased wages and refocused on benefits offerings due to “critical staffing shortages.”