Bank of America will be increasing its minimum salary to $20 by 2021, CEO Brian Moynihan says. (Photo: Associated Press)
Bank of America has announced plans to increases its minimum salary to $20 an hour.
CEO Brian Moynihan announced yesterday that entry-level employees joining his company would be seeing pay bumps over the next two years, with minimum salaries rising to $17 an hour in May and to $20 an hour by 2021.
“If you get a job at Bank of America, you’ll make $41,000,” Moynihan promised, speaking to MSNBC. That new salary would make Bank of America home to some of the best-payed tellers in America.
Bank of America’s pay raise follows a growing trend of companies taking it upon themselves to increase their minimum salaries in the face of $7.25 federal minimum wage that has not been increased in 10 years.
Even at $20 an hour, however, Bank of America still doesn’t offer the best minimum salary in the country.
They’re just one of many major, national companies that have cranked up their internal minimum wage over the past few years. We’ve put together a list of 10 companies that, like Bank of America, have recently promised to raise their minimum salaries to something you could actually live on.
CVS announced in February that it will be using money gained through the U.S. tax overhaul to increase its starting minimum pay to $11 an hour.
The company has 240,000 U.S. workers who currently earn a minimum of $9 an hour – just a bit more than minimum wage. Not only will the retail workers at the bottom of that totem pole be seeing a $2 an hour raise, but they’ll also be getting a guaranteed four weeks of paid parental leave.
A month before CVS made its announcement, Walmart, likewise, promised to raise its minimum salary to $11 an hour.
“Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S,” Walmart’s CEO said in a public statement.
In addition to increased salaries, the company’s more than one million employees have also been promised guaranteed maternity leave and one-time bonuses of up to $1,000, all of which took effect in February of this year.
Flipping burgers at the fast food chain In-N-Out will earn you a minimum of $13 an hour, under company policy — and it’s a surprisingly good place to grow your career. According to USA Today, In-N-Out’s store managers make, on average, $160,000 year.
Since a salary of $118,400 puts you in the wealthiest top 10% of Americans, that means that the person grilling your burger just might be one of the richest people in this country.
In Sept. 2017, Target announced plans to gradually increase its minimum salary from $10 to $15 an hour.
The company is going to start giving entry-level workers $13 an hour starting in June and, by 2020, will be raising those salaries up to $15 an hour – more than twice the federal minimum wage.
Target’s on track for a great opening salary, but Costco’s already there. The company announced in March that it would be raising its minimum wage for store workers up to $15 an hour, up from $13 an hour just a year ago.
Not only do their store employees make double the federal minimum wage, but they also enjoy one of the highest average salaries in the United State of any retailer at $22.50 an hour.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has publicly lobbied for an increase to the minimum wage. To put his money where his mouth is, he increased his company’s minimum salary up to $15 in November.
Be warned, however, that Amazon’s pay increase isn’t entirely without controversy. Stock awards and bonus incentives, employees say, were cut when the pay went up. Some even say that, after the cuts to their benefits, they’re actually making less money than they were before.
Bank of America isn’t the only bank raising its wages. Competitor Wells Fargo announced plans to raise its minimum salary to $15 an hour back in December — which, at the time, gave it one of the best opening salaries a bank teller could find.
It only took one month, however, for other banks to follow Wells Fargo’s suit. In January, JPMorgan matched Wells Fargo’s deal, raising its minimum salary to $15 an hour, as well.
JPMorgan Chase, however, took it a step further, promising to offer even better minimum salaries in select areas. The best deals are in New York, San Francisco, and Boston, where employees are guaranteed a minimum of $18 an hour.
Bank of America, of course, beat all those offers yesterday when they ratcheted their minimum salary all the way up to $20 an hour.
There’s been some skepticism in the media about whether Bank of America’s pay raise is an altruistic act or just a way to make sure they look good before getting grilled by the House Financial Services Committee, whom they testified before earlier today.
Whatever their motives might be, though, their employees are definitely going to benefit.
There’s still one company that offers a better opening salary that Bank of America — but you’ll have to move to Seattle to get this job.
Gravity Payments, a company that processes credit card payments for small businesses, announced in 2015 that they’d be raising their minimum salary to an incredible $70,000 a year.
To make that possible, CEO Dan Price slashed his own salary down from $1.1 million to the new $70,000 minimum, meaning that, if you get a job as a receptionist at this company, you’ll be making as much as the CEO.
The company had a few rocky days after they made the change, but, in the long-run, paying people a fair salary seems to have worked out. Since increasing their salaries, Gravity Payments’ revenue has nearly tripled, according to the New York Times, rising for $3.8 billion a year to $10.2 billion.
All these companies offering livable salaries, KSL Newsradio’s Dave Noriega says, is proof that the free market takes care of its people without the government stepping in.
“[Mandatory] minimum wage is terrible,” Noriega said on the show today. “We should not be relying on the government to determine what we should be paid.”
Co-host Debbie Dujanovic, however, doesn’t exactly see it the same way.
Hear both sides of the issue on the Dave & Dujanovic podcast:
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on KSL Newsradio. Users can find the show on the KSL Newsradio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play.
