CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America will raise its minimum wage from $17 to $20 an hour early next year, more than a year sooner than previously announced.
The bank said Monday the new minimum wage, first announced this spring, will now go into effect by the end of the first quarter in 2020. It was scheduled to increase to $20 by 2021.
The bank said the decision to move up the timeline for the increase is part of its commitment to be a great place to work through offering “leading” benefits, including pay.
In May, the company raised the minimum wage to $17 an hour.
The wage for the bank’s lowest paid workers has increased by more than $8 an hour since 2010, Bank of America said in a release. The move impacts thousands of the bank’s 208,000 employees.
CEO Brian Moynihan previously told CNBC that the increase to $20 would mean that employees starting with the bank would earn a minimum of $41,000 a year.
The announcement comes a week after the financial institution said it would give a one-time bonus to 95 percent of its employees.
It’s the third year in a row the bank has given the bonuses, either in the form of cash or restricted stock units.
Employers nationally have been under pressure to raise compensation for the lowest-paid workers as the cost of housing and other expenses have outpaced wage increases.
In North Carolina, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the same as the federal minimum wage. (Washington’s minimum wage is $12 per hour.)
According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a single person in Mecklenburg County would need to earn $12.58 an hour to make ends meet, and an adult with one child would need to make $24.69.
