(Corrects to "partners" from "employees" in first paragraph of Sept 12 story)
(Reuters) -Amazon.com on Tuesday said it is investing over $440 million over the next year to boost wages for its contracted delivery partners.
With this investment, Amazon expects the contracted delivery workers in the U.S. to earn $20.50 per hour on average or more.
Amazon uses external operators via their delivery service partner (DSP) program to facilitate faster and more efficient parcel delivery. The DSP program, launched in 2018, consists of about 279,000 driving jobs and helps Amazon deliver 20 million packages every day across 19 countries.
The company said that many DSPs already pay above $20.50 per hour and that the investment will help them provide better wages and benefits to drivers.
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
