Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion to raise pay and lower health insurance costs for warehouse and transportation employees in the U.S.

The company said Wednesday that the average pay for a worker in Amazon's vast logistics empire will increase to $23 an hour this year. The average total compensation, including benefits, will pencil out to over $30 an hour. Full-time employees will see about a $1,600 per year pay bump.

The tech giant is known in Seattle for its tens of thousands of corporate workers, but most of the company's workforce is made up of warehouse employees. Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the world, with 1.55 million workers.

Amazon reviews its pay and benefits in the fall, regularly raising pay for its warehouse workers, wrote Udit Madan, senio

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