REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
- Amazon announced a contest for its vaccinated frontline employees in an email, Bloomberg first reported.
- Prizes include cash rewards up to $500,000, cars, and vacation packages.
- The contest is Amazon's effort to incentivize employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which the company does not currently mandate.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Amazon really wants its workforce vaccinated against COVID-19, and the online retail giant has announced a corporate lottery for frontline employees who can prove their vaccination status, Bloomberg reported.
The 'Max your Vax' contest is open to frontline employees, which include its warehouse and logistics workers as well as hourly workers in Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh groceries, and Amazon Web Service data centers, Bloomberg reported late Friday.
The contest will offer up to 18 prizes, which Amazon valued at almost $2 million, according to Bloomberg. This includes two $500,000 and six $100,000 cash prizes, five new vehicles, and five vacation packages.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider.
While big companies, including Disney and Walmart, have begun to mandate vaccine shots for most employees, Amazon has yet to do so for Amazon warehouse and frontline workers, many of whom have worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon offered on-site COVID vaccine clinics back in March, but stopped COVID testing for its warehouse workers in July.
Read more: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee
Amazon looks to be approaching employee vaccinations as an incentive rather than a mandate. With its already high employee turnover rates, Amazon believes vaccine mandates may drive away their more skeptical workers.
The company announced on Friday that all warehouse workers, regardless of vaccination status, will need to wear a mask starting August 9 amid the spread of the coronavirus delta variant. Amazon also pushed back the return date for its office workers to January 2022.