Bank of America to raise its minimum wage to $25 by 2025, hire 30-plus in Maine

Photo / Renee Cordes Bank of America, whose retail branch at One City Center in Portland is shown here, employs 860 people in Maine.

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By Renee Cordes

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), which employs 860 people in Maine, will raise its U.S. minimum hourly wage to $25 by 2025, the company announced this week.

In March it raised its U.S. minimum wage to $20 an hour, continuing a policy of increasing its minimum rage over the past several years and requiring its vendors to follow suit.

The new requirement for vendors is $15 an hour, according to Wednesday's announcement, with 99% already doing so for more than 43,000 of staff, according to Bank of America.

“A core tenet of responsible growth is our commitment to being a great place to work which means investing in the people who serve our clients,” Sheri Bronstein, the bank's chief human resources officer, said in a news release. “That includes providing strong pay and competitive benefits to help them and their families, so that we continue to attract and retain the best talent.”

The move comes as Bank of America looks to fill more than 30 job openings in Maine across a range of business and support functions as competition heats up in the southern part of the state.

It also comes three months after the company said trimmed CEO Brian Moynihan's pay by 7.5% to $24.5 million in 2020, according to a filing cited by Bloomberg News.

With 7.5% of the Maine market in terms of deposits as of June 30, 2020, Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is No. 5 in the FDIC's latest ranking behind TD Bank, Camden National Bank, Bangor Savings Bank and KeyBank, in that order.

Maine aspirations

Bill Williamson, Bank of America's Maine market president based in Portland, told Mainebiz that the company expects the latest minimum wage increase to boost talent recruitment efforts.

“When we increased our U.S. minimum wage to $20/hour in 2020 — one year ahead of schedule — we saw an immediate increase in applicants, particularly for our call center in Belfast." he said. "We are expecting a similar reaction from this announcement, building on our history of being an industry leader on competitive wages."

He also underscored that the bank also continues to take care of current employees through a range of benefits and programs that support professional development and career growth, adding, "That is why we are so successful at retaining talent."

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