Bank of America will increase its minimum hourly wage to $23 next month, taking another step toward a goal of paying $25 by 2025, as employers respond to a strong labor market.
The move bumps pay up from $22, a level the firm put in place last year, and translates to a full-time annualized salary of about $48,000. It continues a series of hikes lifting the firm's base pay from $15 in 2017.
"By investing in a variety of benefits to attract and develop talented teammates, we are investing in the long-term success of our employees, customers and communities," Sheri Bronstein, who oversees human resources at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender, said in a statement Wednesday.
While the US labor market is still strong and wages are rising, the gains are coming at a slower pace than last year. And lower-income workers continue to enjoy greater pay increases than higher earners, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's
If Bank of America hits its target for 2025, its minimum hourly wage will have climbed by almost $14, or more than 121%, since 2010, according to the firm.
New Dallas office
The bank also said it is moving its Dallas operations to a new skyscraper a half-mile away from where Goldman Sachs is building its own hub.
Bank of America has agreed to lease about half of a 30-story building overlooking Klyde Warren Park, a popular urban green space that connects downtown Dallas with the arts district.
The project, which is being developed by Dallas-based Pacific Elm Properties and KDC, is expected to be completed by 2027, the developers said in a statement on Wednesday.
The bank plans to relocate about 1,000 of its employees who work in its current downtown office building to the new location, which will be named the Bank of America Tower at Parkside. The lender will occupy 238,000 square feet of space in the building, which will feature tenant amenities such as a cocktail bar and outdoor terrace.
With about 14,100 employees across the metro area, Dallas is Bank of America's second-largest employment hub behind its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The move will bring Bank of America closer to its rival Goldman Sachs, which is building a new three-acre campus in the same upscale Victory Park neighborhood of Dallas. The campus, which is due to open in 2026 and house 5,000 workers, will be Goldman Sachs's largest US site outside of New York.
Another major lender, Wells Fargo, is also expanding its presence in the Dallas area, with a new tower in the suburb of Irving that will accommodate more than 3,000 workers by 2025.
The developers of the Bank of America Tower at Parkside said they will begin demolition work on the site next month and start construction by year-end.
"We look forward to being the signature tenant at the Bank of America Tower at Parkside as we provide a great place for our teammates to work as part of our longstanding commitment to Dallas," Bank of America Dallas President Jennifer Chandler said in the release.
—With assistance from Molly Smith.
