Financial services juggernaut Bank of America, the largest commercial bank in the United States with more than $3 trillion in assets, announced Tuesday that it will increase its minimum wage for all employees to $25 per hour, CNN reports.
The announcement comes as Democrats push for an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, a change that will be implemented over the next four years. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour, or roughly $15,200 annually for someone who works 40 hours per week and doesn’t take a single vacation day.
“It costs us a few hundred million dollars a year … but it’s an investment,” the bank’s CEO Brian Moynihan said, adding that it’s about maintaining a “great standard of living for our teammates.”
Moynihan also announced that it will require all vendors to pay at least $15 per hour, impacting 2,000 companies with 43,000 additional workers. Moynihan said that 99% of the company’s vendors already pay at least that amount.
President Joe Biden strongly supports increasing the national minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next four years. Biden signed an executive order last week that would raise the minimum wage paid by federal contractors to $15 per hour by the end of 2022.