Automating User Additions

I am trying to write a shell script that will add a bunch of users with a default password.

I have noticed that useradd has a -p option, but I can't seem to get it to work.

I'm trying to do something like the following:

useradd username -p password


But, that doesn't seem to be working.

Can anyone give me a hand to figure out this problem?

Any help is greatly appreciated!