Top 25 hourly rates at Fortune 500 companies (updated for 2021)

Hourly rates and minimum wages have received ample attention in the media in recent years thanks to a political push to institute a higher minimum wage at the state or federal level. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a crescendo in the conversation about living wages, essential workers, fair compensation, and labor shortages. The federal rate has remained $7.25 per hour since July 2009, but many employers are taking steps to increase hourly rates on their own. 

Below is a list of major companies with average or minimum hourly rates that are higher than the legal requirement. These top 25 hourly rates highlight the growing interest in implementing higher wages at all levels of the corporate ladder.

1. Amazon.com: Amazon has struggled with its public image recently with controversies ranging from reports of lousy working conditions to the company’s now-abandoned plan to open a new headquarters in Queens, New York. However, Amazon did give itself a significant branding boost in 2018 by becoming the first company of its stature to adopt a $15 minimum wage. In September 2021, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon raised the bar again, increasing “its average starting wage in the United States to more than $18 an hour,” according to Reuters.
   
   
2. Charter Communications: Not to be outdone by Amazon, Charter Communications implemented its own $15 minimum wage in 2018. Now, the company is committed to reaching the next big milestone for starting wages: $20 per hour. In April 2020, Charter announced a plan to raise its minimum starting wage for all employees to $20 by 2022. That plan involves Charter adding wage increases every year: $1.50 in 2020 for a starting wage of $16.50, and then another $1.50 increase in 2021 to reach $18.00. According to a March 2021 press release, “virtually all current and newly hired salaried and hourly employees” are now earning at least $18 per hour.
3. Bank of America: In May 2021, Bank of America became one of the biggest names in the conversation around wage reform in the U.S. The banking corporation made waves by announcing an ambitious plan to establish a $25 minimum wage for all employees by the end of 2025. It’s one of the first entities in any industry to discuss a $25 minimum wage in a time when most businesses are mulling $18 or $20 minimum wage tiers. Bank of America’s minimum wage increased to $20 after reaching $17 in 2019. The company has also announced plans to require all its vendors to pay a minimum wage of at least $15 per hour.
4. JPMorgan Chase: JPMorgan Chase gave many of its employees an over-$4 wage increase in July 2016. The bank’s minimum wage increased from $10.15 to $16.50. In 2019, the company announced another new plan to hike its foundational wages. Now, JPMorgan Chase employees earn a minimum wage between $16.50 and $20 depending on their location and the cost of living in that location—for instance, JPMorgan Chase employees in Washington, D.C. currently make $18 per hour.
5. Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo announced in late 2017 that it would start paying a $15 minimum wage. Previously, the minimum hourly rate was $13.50. In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Wells Fargo adopted a similar strategy to JPMorgan Chase. Employees for the banking organization now qualify for a minimum wage of between $15 and $20 depending on where they are based and the cost of living in that area.
6. Whole Foods: Amazon.com bought Whole Foods in 2017, which meant that the grocery chain got the same $15 minimum wage hike as the rest of the company. Whole Foods has a “transparency policy” with its wages: every employee’s salary or hourly rate is “out in the open.” Co-CEO John Mackey has argued that the policy helps empower and motivate employees. So far, there has been no indication of whether Amazon’s new $18 minimum wage will eventually apply to workers at Whole Foods.
7. Disney: The Walt Disney Company has shaken things up over the past several years with how it pays the employees at its iconic theme parks. In 2018, after a year of negotiations with employee unions, Disney committed to implementing a $15 minimum wage across its theme park resorts in California and Florida. Disneyland Park in Anaheim got the hike in 2019 while Disney World in Orlando saw incremental increases before hitting a $15 minimum wage in October 2021.
    
8. Costco: In 2019, Costco raised its minimum wage to $14 per hour, though then-CEO Walter Jelinek claimed that the average wage for Costco employees in the U.S. was considerably higher at $22.50. The wholesale retailer has continued to raise its wages since, officially establishing a $16 starting wage in March 2021.
9. UPS: In the summer of 2018, UPS struck a bargain with the Teamsters to increase the minimum wage for hourly employees. As of August 2018, the wage increased from $10 to $13. UPS has committed to increasing the minimum wage further to $15.50 per hour on or before August 1, 2022. In August 2021, news broke that because UPS was experiencing a particularly high volume of packages, the company would be raising minimum pay for all its package handlers. Now, “dayside” package handlers at UPS make a minimum of $20 per hour, and “nightside” handlers make $21.
10. Walmart: Walmart raised its minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2015 and again to $11 per hour in 2018. The company credited the Republican tax bill for the change and even paid out one-time bonuses of up to $1,000 to all employees. In September 2021, the retailer raised its minimum wage again, moving to $12 per hour during a tight labor market.
11. McDonald’s: McDonald’s has been at the heart of the minimum wage debate for years because the fight for a $15 minimum wage started primarily with fast food workers. McDonald’s hasn’t increased to a $15 minimum wage yet: in 2021, the company committed to reaching the $15 average wage across all company-owned locations by 2024. Currently, wages for entry-level McDonald’s workers are between $11 and $17 per hour, while shift managers make between $15 and $20. Minimum wage varies depending on restaurant location and the cost of living in that area.
12. Target: In 2017, Target promised that it would implement a $15 minimum wage by the end of 2020. The company followed through on that vow, officially raising its minimum wage from $13 to $15 in June 2020.
13. Kroger: The grocery store chain has raised its minimum wage multiple times over the past few years. In 2020, as pandemic fears drove huge demand at grocery stores and turned grocery employees into essential workers, Kroger spent a reported $300 million to raise its average hourly wages from $15 to $15.50. In March 2021, Kroger announced that it would be taking a similar step again, investing $350 million to implement raises that would elevate its average wage to $16 per hour.
14. Shake Shack: Shake Shack has become well-known for paying its employees more than what minimum wage laws require. According to Glassdoor, employees with the company make an average of $12.78. In 2019, Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer admitted that a $15 minimum wage was “probably a good idea,” though the company hasn’t officially adopted the policy.
15. The Home Depot: The Home Depot raised its minimum wage to $11 per hour in 2018. As with Walmart, the company doled out one-time bonuses to workers based on duration of employment. In 2020, the company announced that it would spend $1 billion to implement “incremental compensation” increases for its employees each year. How those incremental compensation hikes work is not clear—Home Depot has declined to share specific details about its plan.
16. CVS: CVS reported benefits from the 2018 tax overhaul, and the drugstore and pharmacy chain responded to those gains by increasing its minimum wage from $9 to $11. In August 2021, the company announced plans to increase the minimum wage for its employees, and during the following month, the CVS minimum wage jumped from $11 to $13 per hour. CVS committed to an additional wage hike in 2022, which will increase the company’s minimum hourly rate to $15.
17. Gap: Retail clothing brand Gap raised its minimum wage to $9 in 2014. The following year, the company announced another increase to at least $10 per hour for all sales associates. Those policies have not been updated since, but Payscale indicates that the average hourly rate at Gap is now above $14.
18. In-N-Out: “We start all our new associates out at a competitive wage for one simple reason...you are important to us!” reads the In-N-Out website. That starting wage is $14-$16 depending on the position and the location. The company also offers ample opportunities for advancement with benefits that include “flexible schedules to accommodate school and other activities, paid vacations, free meals, comprehensive training, and a 401k plan.” Restaurant managers can make $160,000 per year without a college degree.
19. Lowe’s: According to Payscale.com, most positions with Lowe’s—including on-the-floor sales associates—make at least $11 per hour. Company-wide, the average hourly wage is reportedly $14.27. While the company has not instituted a permanent minimum wage raise in several years, Lowe’s did increase its hourly wages by $2 per hour for all employees early in the pandemic. The retailer paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in employee bonuses over the course of the pandemic.
20. Starbucks: In August 2021, Starbucks announced a plan to raise minimum wages for its hourly workers to at least $12 across U.S. stores. The raises, which went into effect in October 2021, were higher in some markets, with a minimum wage surpassing $15 per hour in areas with a high cost of living. The company has one of the most widely praised benefits programs in the retail/food service sector.
21. Best Buy: Best Buy increased its minimum starting wage to $15 per hour starting in August 2020. That increase followed a boost in sales for Best Buy over the course of the pandemic, which the electronics retailer paid forward to its employees in “incremental hourly appreciation pay.”
22. Verizon: Customer service jobs with Verizon almost always pay a few dollars above local minimum wage requirements. $10 or $11 is the low-end range for these jobs based on Payscale data, and the average hourly wage for employees across the company is approaching $19.
23. Trader Joe’s: Trader Joe's ranks highly on “good places to work” lists thanks in part to its employee compensation and benefits. Employees make an average hourly minimum of $13.46 according to Payscale, with $18.50 as the average wage across the company. All employees who work 15 hours per week or more are eligible for health, dental, and vision benefits.
24. IKEA: In June 2014, IKEA bumped up its minimum wage to $10.76 per hour. A year and a half later, the Swedish retailer added another 10 percent hike, raising the minimum wage in U.S. stores to $11.87. Per Payscale, the company’s average wage is $16.57. IKEA has been significantly impacted by pandemic-era supply chain issues, which have left some of the retailer’s products unavailable.
25. Walgreens: In March 2018, following similar announcements by companies such as Walmart and Target, Walgreens announced that it would raise its company-wide minimum wage to $11 per hour. In August 2021, the retailer announced plans to raise its minimum wage yet again, this time to $15. That wage increase will occur in phases starting in October 2021 and “expected to be fully implemented by November 1, 2022.”

These employers are not the only ones taking steps to pay their workers more. With no increase in the federal minimum wage in sight, it is likely that more and more companies will start taking matters into their own hands. 

Paying competitive hourly rates is a healthy choice for branding that helps businesses to attract talent within a robust economy and job seeker’s market. Job seekers can reap the market’s benefits by seeking positions with one of these 25 companies.