Major Retailer Increases Their Minimum Wage to $16 an Hour

The battle between Sam’s Club and Costco is heating up, as Sam’s Club just stole the ball and is running across the court to dunk it.

In an effort to keep Costco from poaching their employees, Sam’s Club is increasing their minimum starting wage from $15 an hour to $16 an hour.

With this chess move, the wholesale giant is still short of Costco’s $19.50 an hour minimum wage, but they make up for it in other ways.

Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas told CNN, “The thing that we’re trying to do here is create good jobs that turn into great careers. Stability matters more for a club model than anywhere else.”

In an effort to do that, they are not only increasing their minimum wage to $16 an hour, but for over 100,000 employees, depending on how long they’ve worked there, will see a pay bump ranging from three percent to six percent.

Sam’s Club wants to make sure their top-tier talent stays with them and doesn’t cross the proverbial street to go to Costco.

They are hoping a more stable work environment, with the possibility to move up the chain in the future, outweighs that extra couple of dollars in hourly wages.

From the outside looking in, it seems as if the minimum wage raise at Sam’s, along with the increase in salary for tenured workers, is an effort to provide more long-term stability.

Like our elders always say, “Slow but steady wins the race.” Sam’s Club is making this change to better their retention of employees and keep their workers happy.