Costco to boost starting pay and beyond for 130K U.S. workers

Paving of the parking lot in front of the main entrance to the Costco Wholesale store at the Cornerstone of Centerville project near I-675 and Wilmington Pike in 2014. JIM WITMER/STAFF

Paving of the parking lot in front of the main entrance to the Costco Wholesale store at the Cornerstone of Centerville project near I-675 and Wilmington Pike in 2014. JIM WITMER/STAFF

Costco is raising its minimum wage to at least $14 an hour by next Monday.

The retail chain, second only to Walmart in sales, also said it would raise pay for other 130,000 U.S. employees generally, at a time when unemployment nationally is low and there is keen competition for qualified employees.

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The company said it would increase its starting hourly wages by $1 to $14 or $14.50 an hour. Other hourly workers will receive raises of between 25 cents and 50 cents, Costco said.

Part of the raise stems from last year’s federal tax cut for corporations, Costco acknowledged.

The company recently saw a good quarter financially. Net sales for the quarter that ended May 13 increased 12.1 percent, to $31.6 billion, from $28.2 billion last year.

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Meanwhile, net sales for the first thirty-six weeks of fiscal year 2018 increased 12 percent, to $95 billion, from $84.8 billion last year.

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