Bank of America has announced a $1 USD hourly wage raise for workers in the U.S., bringing the minimum hourly wage up to $24 USD. BoA’s wage increase in 2024 takes the bank one step closer to its ambitions to raise wages to $25 USD by 2025. The company has been on track to establish a competitive offer that can help with the retention of workers and attract talent to the organization over competition.
As the second-largest U.S. lender, the bank has an extensive network of customers who rely on the company’s services, and effective workers are essential to keep the business running smoothly.
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Bank of America Wage Raise—Hourly Wages Move up to $24 USD
As BoA lifts the minimum wage to $24 USD from $23 USD, workers can now expect the minimum annualized salary for full-time employees in the U.S. to go up to nearly $50,000 USD. BoA is lifting minimum wages for both full-time and part-time hourly positions, so a large segment of U.S. workers should be able to benefit from the change. CBS News reported that BoA declined to comment on how many workers could benefit from the $24 USD hourly wage, but they said the number would be in the “thousands.”
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for bank tellers is $18.10 USD and the median annual wage stands at $37,640 USD. Despite the impression that bank workers are well paid, the lowest-paid employees—typically the tellers, personal bankers, office support staff, and call center employees—are often paid quite low.
Estimates suggest that banks should expect to replace over 27,000 teller positions every year for the next 10 years as they move on to better opportunities. This makes worker retention a top priority for banks across the country.
Taking a look at the numbers from the Census Bureau, the poverty threshold for a family of four was $30,900 USD in 2023, which means that the general average pay for tellers leaves them quite close to the line. The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 USD per hour, a number that has not changed in years despite the changing circumstances of the economy and the job market. Some states have increased the minimum wage within their borders but a more large-scale change is necessary.
As such, BoA’s $24 USD hourly wage is helpful for workers and successive wage hikes will be a big boost for them in the current economy.
BoA Lifts Minimum Wage as a Part of Its Long-Term Strategy
Over the last seven years, BoA has raised hourly pay at a consistent rate, bringing their minimum up from $15 USD to $24 USD. In 2010, the wages were $11.30 USD per hour. From the outside, the increase may sound very minor but collectively, it makes a big difference in the annual pay of a worker. Bank of America’s wage raise will now bring the starting salary for full-time U.S. employees up by almost $20,000 USD since 2017.
What we’ve found is paying a competitive wage and offering great benefits attracts the best people. And when you have the best people you can do your best work for your customers, clients, and communities. But we are not just focused on attracting talent, we want to be an all-around great place to work. So we’ve really focused on how we can help our teammates grow their careers here also.
—Sheri Bronstein, Chief Human Resources Officer
In the press release describing BoA’s plans to raise hourly pay, the company also described the other strategies that it has employed to support workers. In continuation, 97% of Bank of America employees have already received awards through restricted common stock with “more than $4.8 billion has been awarded since the program was introduced in 2017.”
The other employee benefits include 16 weeks of paid parental leave, a sabbatical program, personalized support via the Life Event Services Teams, etc. These benefits are attractive to most workers and especially in addition to BoA’s wage increase in 2024, workers can look towards a better quality of life.
More organizations need to look into establishing comprehensive policies that provide resources to support their employees. If a wage hike isn’t always possible, other forms of support and compensation can also be useful.
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