An employee organizes AirPods from Apple Inc. for sale at a Costco Wholesale Corp. store in San Francisco, California.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Costco is raising its hourly minimum wage to $ 16, putting the starting wage higher than many of its rivals, such as Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
“Two years ago, we moved our starting wage in the US to $ 15 everywhere in the US. Starting next week, the starting salary will go to $ 16,” Costco CEO Craig Jelinek said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Thursday.
The retailer has more than 180,000 employees in the US and 275,000 employees worldwide.
This move comes as Congress debates raising the federal minimum wage from $ 15 an hour as part of President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 bill.
Target and Amazon both pay hourly workers at least $ 15 an hour. Walmart’s minimum wage starts at $ 11 an hour, but it recently announced increases for 425,000 employees, which will push the retailer’s average salary to over $ 15 an hour. Walmart is the country’s largest employer.
In early March last year, the chain set a $ 2 per hour premium for its employees to cushion the financial pressures the pandemic caused many people.
“As we approach the one-year limit of this additional pay, we will limit the temporary premium, but convert part of the premium into a permanent increase by increasing each step based on the hourly wage scales,” said Jelinek.
Costco employees in the US have, on average, been with the company for more than nine years, with more than 60% of employees serving an average of five years or more.
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 his decision.
Correction: The hearing took place on Thursday. An earlier version of this story misrepresented the date.