US News Costco lifts minimum wage above Amazon or Target to $16 per hour

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(Reuters) - Costco Wholesale Corp is raising the minimum wage for its hourly staff to $16 from next week, a dollar more than what its competitors Amazon.com Inc and Target Corp pay per hour.

The membership-only retailer’s move comes as U.S. President Joe Biden plans to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, and a week after rival Walmart Inc raised its hourly wage to an average of $15.

Costco's Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek made the announcement at a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing on worker wages at large companies. (bit.ly/3r6YwoQ)

“It takes a lot of time to interview, find employees, lot of labor involved just trying to hire individuals. We want people to stay with us,” Jelinek said, answering to Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.

 
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Varine

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Does anyone know how the minimum wage increase will affect tipped workers? While I wholeheartedly support it, effectively doubling the wages overnight is going to cause some problems with businesses that don't pay their employees. Not that I care about most of them really, but like my job only pays us 10 dollars an hour right now and the owners both have other jobs, so I don't know if they would be able to afford that immediately.
 

jonas

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I think that's a point that needs to be addressed (or is there already a bill? then I missed it). I could imagine that they could put a requirement that tip+wage need to be at least 15$.

I know from another country that when they increased the minimum wage, lots of restaurants started taking delivery fees to pay their drivers; then people just stopped tipping their drivers.
 

Varine

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I think that's a point that needs to be addressed (or is there already a bill? then I missed it). I could imagine that they could put a requirement that tip+wage need to be at least 15$.

I know from another country that when they increased the minimum wage, lots of restaurants started taking delivery fees to pay their drivers; then people just stopped tipping their drivers.

I believe the Dems were trying to tie it in with the COVID relief package in the house, and they seem deadset on raising it this year, but this is like the worst possible time to pass a bill that will inevetiably lead to an increase in unemployment considering how awful states seem to have been handling that.
 

The Helper

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This is going to be inflationary. Prices are going to rise on this. I do not know why people think that by doubling the minimum wage that is going to do anything. Prices will just go up to accommodate and many low income workers will lose their jobs to automation that will now be worth it to develop.
 

tom_mai78101

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This is going to be inflationary. Prices are going to rise on this. I do not know why people think that by doubling the minimum wage that is going to do anything. Prices will just go up to accommodate and many low income workers will lose their jobs to automation that will now be worth it to develop.

Living in Massachusetts, our state is already in the process of raising minimum wage to $15, and it's expected to finish in 2023.


The impact here in MA were small businesses transitioning to automated services and updating the tech. They were saying something about the conveniences outweighing the risks or something.

Then again, my salary did increase quite a lot, so I'm not sure if it's a benefit from increasing the minimum wages here.
 

midnight8

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This is going to be inflationary. Prices are going to rise on this. I do not know why people think that by doubling the minimum wage that i

I have spent more than 20 years in retail and I will tell you this. You pretty much have 2 controllable expenses. Payroll and inventory shrink. This day and age shoplifting has become organized crime and it is almost impossible to control. Payroll is the only place you can make any ground on expenses. The company I worked for when I started my store was about a 15 million dollar a year store and employed about 90 people typically payed a couple bucks an hour more than min wage. Min wage went up, and they made right by the employees that made more and gave them an equivelent raise, and didn't lay anyone off. The little secret is, no they don't lay anyone off, but typically these type businesses have turnover rates over 50 percent and I have seen as much as 120 percent every year. When people quit, they just don't replace them. Same store now does about 24 to 25 million a year with about 60 employees, much higher expectations. So 33 percent less employeesand what 60 or 70 percent sales increase? It will cost jobs, no doubt and will cause some inflation no doubt.
 
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