$16 an hour will be Costco’s starting rate for its hourly store workers in the United States, higher than the starting rates for its rivals Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. Costco has been actively raising their minimum wage starting with $14 during 2018, and into $15 during 2019. They further add that 20% of their hourly employees will be subject to the minimum wage change.
They have around 190,000 US employees, with the majority working hourly. The raise in minimum wage will start next week, chief executive Craig Jelinek says Thursday during a US Senate Budget Committee hearing regarding worker pay.
This comes after Democrats in Congress have been actively pushing to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. President Biden has also backed up the push for a $15 minimum wage, as the previous federal minimum wage has stood around $7.25 an hour since 2009.
Although some other rival companies, namely Target and Amazon, have been bumping up their rates, many business leaders still oppose the push for a $15 federal minimum wage. This is especially true for small business owners, reasoning that this could prompt layoffs, and at worse, closures.
