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Hobby Lobby Increases Minimum Wage to $18.50 for Full-Time Employees

By: Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy, expert in Personal finance, student loans, credit, job market, low-income finances, and Lead data journalist at Money
Adam Hardy
Lead data journalist | Joined November 2024
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
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Published: Dec 15, 2021 4 min read
Exterior shot of a Hobby Lobby store in Florida
Getty Images

Hobby Lobby is the latest major retailer to announce starting wages well above $15 an hour.

The arts-and-crafts store unveiled plans on Tuesday to increase its “minimum full-time hourly wage” to $18.50. The wage hike goes into effect Jan. 1.

The current minimum wage for full-time workers at the company sits at $17. Come 2022, those workers will see a $1.50 an hour increase.

Part-time workers are not eligible for the $18.50 hourly rate, however, as they have separate wage floors. In October, the company bumped its part-time minimum wage to $13. Hobby Lobby's announcement did not mention any new changes to wages for part-time workers, nor did it state what percentage of its employees are full-time. Money reached out to Hobby Lobby for more details, and we will update this article if the company responds.

According to the announcement, this marks Hobby Lobby’s 12th wage increase in the past 13 years, and the company has had a full-time minimum wage of at least $15 since 2014.

The company’s decision to increase wages comes amid a tight labor market that has employers locked in a game of one-upmanship. Throughout the labor shortage, many well-known employers have been raising pay and sweetening their perks and benefits packages to attract workers.

Where jobs pay $15 an hour

Here’s a look at major companies with $15 minimum wages:

  • Amazon (in effect)
  • Best Buy (in effect)
  • CVS (by July 2022)
  • Southwest Airlines (in effect)
  • Target (in effect)
  • Under Armour (in effect)
  • Walgreens (by November 2022)
  • Wayfair (in effect)

In years past, a $15 minimum wage was a rallying cry for workers. Amid record-setting inflation, that amount doesn’t seem to cut it anymore — and some companies are going higher.

Where jobs pay over $15 an hour

Employers with minimum wages higher than $15 include:

  • Bank of America ($21, with plans to hit $25 by 2025)
  • Costco ($17)
  • PNC Bank ($18)

Earlier this summer, Starbucks announced plans to reach a $15 minimum wage over the next three years. Currently, its minimum wage is $12. Walmart’s minimum wage is also $12, but it frequently touts an “average hourly wage” of $16.40.

Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage is frozen at $7.25. It hasn’t budged since July 2009. According to the Department of Labor, 30 states and Washington, D.C. currently have minimum wages higher than the federal rate.

No state has fully implemented a $15 minimum wage. California will become the first to do so on Jan. 1, and several other states have plans to incrementally reach $15 in upcoming years.

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