When Bank of America’s employees received their bi-weekly paychecks this week, the lowest dollar amount that any of them earned per hour was $17 after the bank officially increased its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $17 this month.
Last month, the megabank announced that it plans to increase the minimum hourly wage for all of its approximately 205,000 employees to $20 by the year 2021.
That increase will be done incrementally, and the first salary boost came this month, as the bank increased its minimum wage from $15 to $17 on May 1.
Bank of America raised its minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2017. The bank was also among those that pledged to raise wages in late 2017 after President Donald Trump signed tax reform into law that decreased the corporate tax rate, thereby giving companies like Bank of America more money.
The company is now following through with that pledge and its plans to continue increasing wages until they reach $20 per hour by May 2021.
According to the bank, since 2010, it has increased its minimum wage by nearly $6 per hour.
“We have raised our minimum wage because we believe that to best serve our customers and clients, we need the best teams,” Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America, said. “Saying thank you, celebrating great work, and sharing our success further demonstrate our commitment to being a great place to work.”
