Costco Wholesale Corporation is to increase entry level pay for its employees in the US and Canada to at least $13-13.50 an hour.
The membership retailer, which employs some 205,000 full and part-time staff worldwide, currently pays a starting rate of $11.50-12 an hour in the US and Canada.
This is the first time that the organisation has changed its wage rate for entry-level employees in nine years.
Costco expects the $1.50 an hour increase in pay to cost around one cent per share in the next quarter and and by two cents per share in the subsequent three fiscal quarters.
Speaking on an earnings and sales results conference call with analysts on 3 March, Richard Galanti, chief financial officer at Costco, said: “It’s important to do. We want to be the premium at all levels [of the pay scale].”
