By Katherine Doherty | Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. will increase its minimum hourly wage to $24 next month, taking the next step toward a goal of paying $25 by 2025 that it set seven years ago.
The move bumps pay up from $23, a level the firm put in place last September, the company said Tuesday. It translates to a full-time annualized salary of about $50,000 and applies to all full-time and part-time hourly positions in the US. The change continues a series of hikes lifting the firm’s base pay from $15 in 2017.
“Providing a competitive minimum wage is core to being a great place to work — and I am proud that Bank of America is leading by example,” Sheri Bronstein, who oversees human resources at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender, said in a statement Tuesday.
Data last week showed signs of softening in the US labor market, with job growth slowing and job seekers having more difficulty finding work. Still, employers like Bank of America have made commitments to raise hourly average pay in a bid to retain talent in recent years.
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.
Southwest chairman to step down amid activist battle
Southwest Airlines Co. Chairman Gary Kelly is stepping down along with six directors, a dramatic move after the carrier faced calls for a strategic overhaul from activist investor Elliott Investment Management.
Kelly, 69, will “voluntarily retire” from the board and his executive chairman position immediately after the 2025 annual meeting, Southwest said Tuesday in a statement. The six directors will depart after the November board meeting.
Southwest reaffirmed support for Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan, whom Elliott has been seeking to force out.
The carrier said it presented the changes to Elliott Monday and invited the firm to be part of the company’s turnaround. The airline will continue to seek a “collaborative resolution” with the activist, which has proposed 10 new directors for the 15-member board.Elliott said the move by nearly half of Southwest’s board to resign was “unprecedented.”
“We are pleased that the board is beginning to recognize the degree of change that will be required at Southwest, and we hope to engage with the remaining directors to align on the further necessary changes,” the firm said in a statement. “The need for thoughtful, deliberate change at Southwest remains urgent, and we believe the highly qualified nominees we have put forward are the right people to steady the board and chart a new course for the airline.”
The departures underscore the high stakes in the carrier’s battle with Elliott, which has pushed to oust both Kelly and Jordan. The activist has accused the airline’s leaders of refusing to modernize operations, hurting shareholders and leaving Southwest unable to withstand operational and competitive challenges.
Fed to cut biggest banks’ capital hike by half in overhaul
US regulators will make extensive changes to their bank-capital rules proposal, cutting the expected impact to the largest banks by half and exempting smaller lenders from large portions of the measure, a top Federal Reserve official said.
The proposed revisions previewed Tuesday by Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr would roughly slice in half the 19% capital hike that regulators had planned for the eight biggest US banks. Those lenders, including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase Co., would now face a 9% increase in the capital they must hold as a cushion against financial shocks.
The overhauled proposal may ease key concerns of Wall Street banks, which unleashed one of their fiercest lobbying campaigns after the capital plan was first released in July 2023 by the Fed and two other financial regulators. The revisions could also help avoid a long legal battle with the industry, which has argued that the original proposal would hurt the economy and put US banks on weaker footing against international rivals and nonbank lenders.
“There are benefits and costs to increasing capital requirements,” Barr said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. “The changes we intend to make will bring these two important objectives into better balance, in light of the feedback we have received.”
Bloomberg writers Mary Schlangenstein, Katanga Johnson and Hannah Levitt contributed to this report.
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