Big Companies Are Raising Wages for Lowest-Paid Workers

This week, Bank of America announced it has raised its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $21 and plans to increase it to $25 by 2025. Last year, the bank raised its lowest hourly wage to $20, up from $17.With the increase to $21 an hour, the annualized minimum salary for full-time workers at Bank of America will be $43,680.In May, the company announced that all of its U.S. vendors are now required to pay their employees whose work is tied to Bank of America at or above $15 per hour.The current federally mandated minimum wage for private-sector workers is $7.25 per hour, enacted more than a decade ago. The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are pushing for a $15 national minimum wage, while many states and localities are raising their own mandatory minimum wage levels. SHRM Online has collected the following articles on rising minimum wage rates at U.S. employers. Walmart to Increase Wages, End Quarterly BonusesWalmart increased hourly wages for hundreds of thousands of its employees as of the end of September. The retailer raised its starting wage to $12 from the $11 floor established in 2018, a move that increases pay for over 525,000 of its 1.6 million U.S. workers by at least $1 an hour. Walmart workers will earn an average of $16.40 an hour, the company said.Walmart also said it was phasing out its quarterly bonuses for store workers, ending a decades-old practice of offering hourly workers financial incentives directly linked to store or company performance—a practice championed by Walmart founder Sam Walton. Folding the bonus into wages will increase the amount of workers’ consistent, predictable income, the company said.(Wall Street Journal) What Amazon’s $18 Average Hourly Wage Means for Other EmployersAmazon is raising its average hourly U.S. wage to $18 an hour for warehouse workers, the company said in September, putting more pressure on other employers to do the same in a tight labor market. Just four years ago, the online retailer increased its starting wage to $15 an hour.The new wage standard from the U.S.’s second largest private employer—Amazon trails only Walmart in the size of its employee base—puts pressure on competitors to raise pay. That’s not just among national employers like Walmart and Target but also locally. Ahead of the holiday season, wage inflation is creating a real challenge for smaller businesses that are struggling to find workers.(Quartz) Big Companies Raising Their Minimum WagesMany large corporations criticized for underpaying their staff are now upping their offerings in hopes of attracting more workers. That means hourly-wage jobs are being boosted to pay levels never seen before.Costco, which introduced a $15 per hour starting pay in 2019, now pays all employees a starting wage of $16 an hour. More than half of its hourly workers are paid above $25 an hour. Chipotle reached an average hourly wage of $15 an hour for its employees by the end of June 2021, with hourly starting wages now ranging from $11 to $18.Pharmacy chain CVS Health …

06/10/2021