Sam’s Club is raising pay for nearly 100,000 hourly workers, with the retail chain’s starting wage increasing by $1 to $16.
Longer-tenured employees will get bigger pay raises, the Walmart-owned retailer announced Tuesday. The adjustment will go into effect Nov. 2, as retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season.
“Until now, retail associate compensation has been largely based on hourly wages, and it’s almost unheard of to talk about frontline associate compensation in terms of their foreseeable financial future – that changes for Sam’s Club starting today,” Chris Nicholas, Sam’s Club president and CEO, said in a statement.
Employees can expect their hourly wages to increase between 3% and 6% depending on their years of service, with the average rate expected to exceed $19 per hour, said Sam’s Club, which operates about 600 stores across the United States. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has 1.6 million workers in the United States.
An hourly wage of $16 would translate to an annual salary of $33,280, based on a 40-hour workweek. In July, Sam’s Club competitor Costco Wholesale raised its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $19.50 an hour.
More satisfied workers are more likely to keep their jobs, especially in retail, where the turnover rate in 2022 averaged 60%, according to Sam’s Club. The poverty line for a family of four in 2023 was $30,900, according to data released last week by the Census Bureau.
Retail work is among the lowest-paying jobs, with the nearly 4.1 million workers in the sector earning an average of $16.30 an hour in 2023, according to federal statistics.
By comparison, the country’s 350,300 bank tellers earned a median wage of $18.10 an hour last year, with some major players offering more. Bank of America recently announced it was raising its minimum wage in the United States. $24 salaryfrom October, with the aim of reaching $25 in 2025.
In 2012, labor activists launched the “Fight for $15” campaign to pressure employers to raise wages for fast-food workers and other low-wage workers. More than 30 states now require employers to pay a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage, according to Labor Department data.
THE federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009.
