Starbucks and Costco raise wages in the nationwide competition for workers
October 28, 2021
By Alina Selyukh, NPR
Costco has raised its minimum U.S. wage to $17 an hour, and Starbucks will raise its starting pay to $15 an hour. They join a growing list of chains that have added new incentives, trying to keep their workers in a year of mass resignations and stepped-up labor organizing.
Starbucks is planning some raises in January, but its minimum-pay increase will kick in next summer, when baristas will earn between $15 and $23 an hour. The coffee giant had committed to raising its hourly minimum to $15 back in December, when it said about a third of its retail staff already earned that much.
Costco has confirmed to NPR that it raised its starting pay to $17 an hour on Monday. That comes only a few months after the company made the jump to $16 an hour in February — at the time propelling it ahead of most competitors. Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek said at the time that the majority of hourly workers already earned above $25.