Bank of America said it is raising the minimum hourly wage it pays employees to $25 by the year 2025.
The firm, which made the announcement Tuesday in a release, had just completed a plan last year to get to a $20 minimum wage. The second-biggest U.S. bank by assets after JPMorgan Chase also said that vendors would be required to pay workers at least $15 an hour.
Bank of America, run by CEO Brian Moynihan since 2010, helped push the industry’s compensation higher in recent years when it announced it was one of the first megabanks to guarantee a $20 hourly wage. That was in 2019, and it ended up getting to its goal 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, the firm’s top human resources officer. “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.”
Banks and other employers with large retail workforces have received criticism over low wages in the past.
While executives and senior employees in Wall Street trading and advisory operations often make millions of dollars a year, bank tellers are paid far less. About one-third of bank tellers were on some form of public assistance, from Medicaid to food stamps, according to a 2013 report from The Committee for Better Banks.
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Source: Finance - cnbc.com
