Sam’s Club hikes pay as it competes for workers with Costco and other retailers

Sam’s Club is boosting pay for nearly 100,000 hourly workers, with the retail chain’s starting wage rising by a buck to $16.

Longer-tenured employees will get bigger pay hikes, the Walmart-owned retailer announced on Tuesday. The adjustment will take effect on November 2, as retailers gear up for the vital holiday shopping season. 

“Until now, retail compensation has largely been about hourly wages, and it’s almost unheard of to talk about frontline associate compensation in terms of a predictable financial future — that changes for Sam’s Club starting today,” Chris Nicholas, president and CEO of Sam’s Club, said in a statement. 

Employees can expect their hourly pay to increase between 3% and 6% based on their years of service, with the average rate expected to top $19 per hour, said Sam’s Club, which operates about 600 stores across the U.S. Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, has 1.6 million U.S. workers.

A wage of $16 per hour would translate into a yearly salary of $33,280 assuming a 40-hour work week. Sam’s Club rival Costco Wholesale in July raised its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $19.50 per hour.

More satisfied workers are more likely to stay in their jobs, especially in retail, where turnover in 2022 averaged 60%, according to Sam’s Club. The poverty threshold for a family of four in 2023 was $30,900, according to data released last week by the Census Bureau. 

Retail work is among the lowest-paid jobs, with the industry’s nearly 4.1 million workers earning a median of $16.30 an hour in 2023, according to federal statistics. 

By comparison, the nation’s 350,300 bank tellers earned median pay of $18.10 an hour last year, with some larger players offering more. Bank of America recently said it’s raising its U.S. minimum wage to $24, starting in October, with a goal of hitting $25 in 2025. 

Labor advocates launched the “Fight for $15” campaign in 2012 to put pressure on employers to raise the pay of fast-food and other low-wage workers. More than 30 U.S. states now require employers to offer a minimum wage surpassing the federal base, Department of Labor data shows. 

The federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $7.25 an hour since 2009.