An employee arranges Apple Inc.’s AirPods for sale at a Costco Wholesale Corp store. in San Francisco, California.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Costco is raising his hourly minimum wage to $ 16, putting his starting salary above many of his rivals like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy.
“Two years ago, we changed our starting hourly wage to $ 15 across the United States. Next week, the starting wage will go to $ 16,” said Costco CEO Craig Jelinek during a budget committee hearing for the Senate on Thursday.
The retailer has more than 180,000 employees in the United States and 275,000 employees worldwide.
That move comes as Congress debates raising the federal minimum wage by $ 15 an hour as part of President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill.
Target and Amazon pay hourly workers a minimum of $ 15 an hour. Walmart’s minimum wage starts at $ 11 an hour, but recently announced increases to 425,000 employees that will raise the retailer’s average wage to more than $ 15 an hour. Walmart is the largest employer in the country.
As of March last year, the chain has instituted a $ 2 hourly premium for its employees to help ease the financial pressure that the pandemic has brought to many people.
“As we approach the one-year mark of that extra payment, we will limit the temporary premium, but we will convert part of the premium into a permanent increase, increasing each step on the hourly wage scales,” said Jelinek.
Costco employees in the United States have been with the company for more than nine years, on average, with more than 60% of their employees having an average of five years or more of service.
Costco has 803 locations worldwide, including 558 in 45 US states, Washington and Puerto Rico.
The company was not immediately available to comment further on its decision.
Correction: The hearing took place on Thursday. An earlier version of this story distorted the date.