NEW YORK (AP) – Costco raises its starting salary to $ 16 an hour, surpassing most of its key competitors.
Costco CEO Craig Jelinek announced the increase Thursday during a Senate Budget Committee hearing, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, to examine wages at large corporations. Jelinek said the starting salary for Costco employees will rise to $ 16 next week, compared to $ 15 the company introduced two years ago.
The starting salary scale puts Costco above competitors, including Amazon, Target and Best Buy, which have $ 15 minimum wages. Walmart’s starting fee is $ 11 per hour.
Jelinek says the higher salary will boost the retention and productivity of workers.
“I want to note: this is not altruism,” Jelinek said. “At Costco, we know that paying good wages to employees and affordable benefits for our business make sense and are a significant competitive advantage for us.”
Workers at Walmart and McDonald’s testified during the trial to demand that the businesses increase their minimum wage.
The federal minimum wage is currently $ 7.25. Democrats are trying to lower a $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 relief bill that would include a provision that would raise the federal minimum wage over five years to $ 15 per hour, a policy that Republicans strongly oppose.
This attempt received a serious blow on Thursday when the Senate MP decided that the provision for minimum wage should be included in the bill, according to Democratic Senate assistants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not made public.
A growing number of states have already raised the minimum wage to $ 15 per hour.
Costco’s announcement also comes because labor groups are paying for groceries and other essential works, which some businesses offered at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and ended later.
Costco has continued to pay a $ 2 premium to their hourly workers since March. Jelinek said Costco would end the premium as the one-year mark approached, but that it would convert it by raising wages into wage figures.
Costco has 180,000 employees in the US. Jelinek said more than half earn $ 25 an hour or more.