(GNB, Washington): Costco Wholesale Corp is raising the minimum wage for its hourly staff to $16 from next week.
Costco’s new hourly rate is a dollar more than what its competitors Amazon.com Inc and Target Corp pay per hour and more than double the current United States federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25.
Costco Wholesale, the membership-only retailer’s move comes as United States President Joe Biden plans to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, and a week after rival Walmart Inc raised its hourly wage to an average of $15.
Craig Jelinek, Costco’s Chief Executive Officer made the announcement at a US Senate Budget Committee hearing on worker wages at large companies.
“It takes a lot of time to interview, find employees, lot of labour involved just trying to hire individuals. We want people to stay with us,” Jelinek said, answering to Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.
Costco hiked its minimum wage to $14 in 2018 and $15 in 2019. The company, which has 558 locations in the U.S., says only 20% of its hourly employees make the minimum wage. Half its U.S. workers earn more than $25 an hour, Jelinek said Thursday.
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