Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN  ) has raised the pay for hourly workers at its U.S. fulfillment centers and transportation operations, the retail giant announced on Wednesday.

"Earlier today, I visited one of our sites near Salt Lake City to share some news with our teammates there-that we're making a significant new investment in pay and benefits for the hourly front-line employees across our fulfillment and transportation network," Udit Madan, vice president of Amazon Worldwide Operations, wrote in the company's newsletter.

He said Amazon's front-line team will receive an hourly pay raise of $1.50 starting this month to bring the average base wage to $22 per hour. This will bring average total compensation, which includes benefits, to $29 per hour, he said.

"This is an increase of $3,000 a year on average for full-time employees who work a 40-hour week," he wrote.

"And as one of the largest private employers in the country (we now have more than 800,000 people in these roles across the U.S.), this pay increase equals a total investment of more than $2.2 billion in our team."

Amazon's benefits include pre-paid college tuition, flexible working hours, a Prime membership, health insurance from the first day on the job and dental coverage.

"As I told the team this morning, this is just one way to say thank you for all they do," Madan wrote.

Apple Inc. (AAPL  ), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT  ) and Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc. (GOOG  ) (GOOGL  ) offer six-figure salaries for managers and engineers.

Just over a year ago, the United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS  ) and the Teamsters Union ratified a five-year contract that ensures $170,000 per year for drivers over the next five years.

Price Action: Amazon gained 0.1% to $187.11 at the time of publication Wednesday.

Exchange-traded funds that hold the stock also trended upward.

• ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN  ) gained 1.32%.
• Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index ETF (FDIS  ) rose 0.72%.
• Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR  ) went up 0.81%.
• Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY  ) gained 0.67%.
• ProShares Long Online/Short Stores ETF (CLIX  ) ticked up 0.68%.