A national bank that’s been making a push into the Pittsburgh market announced this week it will be raising its minimum wage to $20 per hour within two years.
“We believe that to best serve our customers and clients, we need the best teams,” said Sheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America, in a statement.
At @BofA_News, we are reaffirming our commitment to being a #GreatPlaceToWork by raising the minimum wage in the U.S. to $20 per hour in 2021. Way to go @BankofAmerica! https://t.co/fdqBLZh3NK pic.twitter.com/MGaV5MJcqH
— Virginia Parker (@virginiagparker) April 10, 2019
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has branches in Upper St. Clair and plans to open others in McCandless, Ross and Pittsburgh’s East End in the coming months.
Including employees of its wealth management services subsidiary Merrill Lynch, Bank of America has about 300 employees in the Pittsburgh area, according to Brian Ludwick, the bank’s regional vice president.
Ludwick wasn’t immediately able to tally how many local employees would be impacted.
Effective May 1, the bank’s minimum hourly wage will be $17 and it will continue to increase until it reaches $20 per hour in 2021, the bank said.
The average rate for its more than 200,000 U.S. hourly employees is “significantly above this level,” already, the bank said, but it didn’t provide an average salary.
In the Pittsburgh statistical area, the average hourly wage was $23.36 in 2017, the latest numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is 4 percent below the national average of $24.34 in 2017, according to the national data.
