Dive Brief:
- Bank of America is bumping up by a year the timeline by which it will raise its minimum wage to $20 per hour.
- The bank raised its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $17 in May and announced it planned to further raise it to $20 by 2021. The $20 rate will now go into effect by the end of the first quarter of 2020.
- Minimum wage has become a hot-button topic in Washington. The House passed a bill in July to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. And in April, Rep. Katie Porter, D-CA, took big-bank CEOs to task over pay disparity at financial institutions.
Dive Insight:
Many of the country's largest banks have pledged to raise their minimum wages in recent years. Citigroup boosted its minimum wage in the U.S. in June to $15 per hour. JPMorgan Chase in 2018 agreed to lift its minimum wage to $18 per hour in such cities as New York, San Francisco, Boston and Washington.
However, when asked at the April hearing on Capitol Hill if he would match Bank of America's $20-per-hour pledge, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon defended his bank's $16.50-per-hour minimum wage outside of major cities, saying it's not an "arms race."
Bank of America's minimum wage has increased by more than $8 an hour since 2010, the bank said in a press release Monday.
"As part of our commitment to being a great place to work, we are saying thank you, and sharing our success with our teammates who serve our clients and communities every day," said Sheri Bronstein, the bank's chief human resources officer.
The move comes less than a week after the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank announced it would give a one-time $1,000 bonus in December to its employees making $100,000 or less per year.
