Benzinga | Sep 22, 2021 03:03AM EDT

Amazon Dishes Out Cars, $100K In Rewards To Workers As It Seeks To Encourage Staff Vaccination

Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has dished out cars and $100,000 in cash bonuses to employees at its warehouses and at Whole Foods who got vaccinated.

What Happened: The e-commerce behemoth has given away cars worth as much as $40,000 to four warehouse workers and one Whole Foods team member, as per an Instagram post.

The post by the "Amazon Vest Life" account contained brief biographies of the winning staff members, who all said they were vaccinated.

Three warehouse and Whole Foods employees received a $100,000 award last week for getting vaccinated, Amazon Vest Life posted separately.

See Also: How To Buy Amazon (AMZN) Shares

Why It Matters: Multiple companies and government agencies have taken to holding lavish sweepstakes to increase COVID-19 vaccinations.

Those giving away prizes have included CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS), Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR), and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL).

Amazon's "Max Your Vax" program offers employees a chance to win cars, a vacation package worth $12,000, and cash prizes as large as $500,000, as per CNBC.

A total of 18 prizes, worth $2 million, will reportedly be given out through Oct. 21.

As per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of nearly 467.25 million vaccines have been distributed in the United States and 386.78 million have been administered.

CDC data indicates that 63.9% of adults have received at least one shot, while 54.8% have been fully vaccinated with two doses.

PriceAction: On Tuesday, Amazon shares closed nearly 0.4% lower at $3,343.63 in the regular session and fell 0.13% in the after-hours trading.

Read Next: Doctor Offers A Chance To Win A Tesla After COVID-19 Vaccination

Photo: Courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr