Minimum pay goes up — again — at Bangor Savings

Photo / Jason P. Smith Bob Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank, has raised the bank's minimum pay to $14 per hour, the second such increase this year.

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By Staff

Bangor Savings Bank has raised the minimum rate it pays employees to $14 per hour.

The raise, which took effect earlier this month, is the bank’s second increase in the minimum rate of pay to take place in 2016.

The raise was from $13 an hour to $14. Earlier this year, Bangor Savings raised its minimum hourly rate from $12 to $13.

The increases reflect the bank’s decision to increase its minimum hourly pay over the past two years in support of its objective to pay a living wage to all employees, regardless of location, job position or whether they are full-time or part-time.

“Our living wage initiative recognizes that all positions at Bangor Savings Bank, including those typically considered as entry level, are complex and involve a high degree of responsibility,” President and CEO Bob Montgomery-Rice said in a statement announcing the latest increase. “Each of our employees contributes to the success of our company and, in turn, we want to support them with a comprehensive pay and benefit program.”

Montgomery-Rice said the decision to pay an above-market minimum starting hourly rate, accompanied by what he described as a “broad suite of benefits,” carries “high expectations for quality performance” by every one of the bank’s 750 employees.

“The experience our customers receive is the reason the bank was honored for the second year in a row for ‘Highest Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in the New England Region’ in 2016 by J.D. Power,” said Montgomery-Rice.

Bangor Savings, with more than $3.5 billion in assets, has experienced record earnings over the past 15 years. It has been named a “Best Place to Work in Maine” by the Society for Human Resource Management’s Maine State Council in 2008 and each year since 2010.