Bank of America said on Wednesday that it will raise its minimum hourly pay rate to $23 next month.
Two years ago, the Charlotte-based bank said it planned to increase the minimum hourly wage in the U.S. to $25 by 2025. That’s a 121% increase of nearly $14 per hour since 2010, according to Bank of America.
In the last six years, Bank of America raised the minimum hourly wage five times, to $15 in 2017, $17 in 2019, $20 in 2020, $21 in 2021 and $22 last year.
With the latest increase, hourly full-time employee base pay is nearly $48,000 a year.
“Providing a competitive minimum rate of pay is foundational to being a great place to work,” Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America, said in a statement. The pay raise helps attract employees and is an investment in the bank’s workers, customers and communities, Bronstein said.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which is the same rate in North Carolina and South Carolina.
The bank declined to say how many hourly employee it has in the U.S. and Charlotte area but said the pay increase affects 3.7% of all U.S. employees, and that thousands will benefit from the move.
Bank of America had over 170,000 U.S. employees as of December, according to the bank’s annual report. In 2021, Bank of America had 16,000 workers in the Charlotte area.
Minimum hourly wages at other Charlotte banks
Several banks have increased the minimum wage over the past two years in the Charlotte area:
▪ In 2021, Ally Financial raised the minimum hourly rate to $23, according to Ally’s 2022 annual report. In 2021, the digital-only, Detroit-based bank raised the hourly pay rate in 2021 from $17 to $20, affecting 2,300 employees companywide. That same year the bank’s employees began moving into the 26-story Ally building at 601 S. Tryon St., which is expected to house about 2,100 workers.
▪ Last year, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its minimum hourly pay to $20 last year. The Cincinnati-based bank with hundreds of employees in Charlotte and dozens of area branches, had increased pay to $15 in 2018 then $18 in 2019.
▪ Also last year, Truist Financial, based in Charlotte, raised its minimum wage to $22 per hour nationwide, affecting about 14,000 employees, from $15 to $18 an hour, depending on the region. As of last year, the bank employed more than 50,000 workers throughout the U.S., including more than 3,000 people in the Charlotte area.
▪ In 2021, Wells Fargo raised its minimum wage for hourly workers to $18 to $22, depending on location, following an increase the prior year, which was $16 an hour in Charlotte. The San Francisco-based bank has about 27,000 in the Charlotte region.
▪ Also in 2021, Connecticut-based credit card company Synchrony Financial raised its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $20 an hour for all employees, impacting hundreds of workers in Charlotte.
This story was originally published September 20, 2023, 11:00 AM.
