CVS Caremark pharmacy will not be charging CVS pharmacy employees more than $1 an hour after it decided to raise its hourly wage to $9 an hour from $7.50.
CVS Health Care will be increasing its hourly wages to $11 an hour in January.
The hourly wage will be $1 higher than what it is now.
“In our business, we’ve seen that this is a great opportunity to improve pay and make our employees better compensated,” said Chris Hahn, CVS vice president of business development.
Hahn said that the new wage will allow CVS employees to focus on their health care needs and increase their productivity.
CVs Health Care said that its hourly rate has been frozen since January of 2018, but the increase will be a gradual one, and employees will still earn $9.95 an hour.
The new wage is expected to start in early January and last until March of 2019.
“We’re excited to be working with CVS to provide more good pay and better working conditions for our employees,” said Nancy Hahn.
“The CVS hourly rate is already one of the lowest in the industry and we are committed to working with our associates and customers to improve our pay, benefits, and working environment for our associates.”
CVS will be adding about 400 employees to the hourly wage line.
The CVS Food Network has not yet decided whether to raise the hourly rate to $10 an hour or $11, but CVS is working to ensure that all employees in the chain receive a $10 hourly wage.
The company will also be increasing hourly wages for associates to $6.75 an hour and the cost of living allowance to $1,600 for an additional 40 percent pay increase.
The retail giant said it will offer associates a $2.50 raise for every year they’ve worked for the company.
The news was met with excitement on social media.
“Wow, CSP has done a great job to raise their hourly wage and their benefits and now they are doing the same for associates!
This is a big win for workers everywhere!” wrote Stephanie Leche, a customer service representative for a store in Dallas, Texas.
“CVS has been consistently paying their employees well over the line and that will help make their stores more competitive.
I hope they are making more progress with their wage hike this year, because it should help their bottom line.”