(WCMH) — Bank of America announced Tuesday it will raise the minimum wage in the United States to $25 per hour by 2025.
The bank’s current minimum wage is $20, which was first announced in 2019. That increase was supposed to be phased in over two years, but was completed a year ahead of schedule.
“A core tenet of responsible growth is our commitment to being a great place to work which means investing in the people who serve our clients,” said Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America. “That includes providing strong pay and competitive benefits to help them and their families, so that we continue to attract and retain the best talent.”
Bank of America also announced that all its U.S. vendors are now required to pay their employees dedicated to the bank, at or above $15 per hour. The company says over 99% of its more than 2,000 U.S. vendor firms and 43,000 vendor employees are at or above the $15 per hour rate, as a result of the implementation of this policy.
While the Biden administration’s attempts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour have so far failed, several other companies have also boosted worker pay this year.
In February, Costco announced that the minimum wage for warehouse employees would be $16 an hour, a dollar higher than that of Amazon, Target and Best Buy. In April, Amazon announced that more than 500,000 people in its fulfillment centers would see an increase in hourly pay between 50 cents and $3. Last Thursday, McDonald’s said that it would be raising hourly wages by an average of 10%.
The last time Congress raised the minimum wage was in July of 2009, from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour.