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Costco CEO announces company raising its minimum wage to $16 an hour

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Costco's Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek announced during a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing on Thursday that employees at its stores in the United States would soon be getting a raise.

According to Reuters, the hourly rate will be increased to $16 an hour.

Jelinek told Senate Budget Committee Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders that the pay raise comes as they look to keep people on because it "takes a lot of time to interview, find employees, a lot of labor involved just trying to hire individuals," Reuters reported.

The hike in pay should go into effect next week, CNN reported.

According to CNN, the company has 180,000 people working for them in the U.S., and 90% of their workforce works hourly.

News of this comes as Democrats in Congress rally support of the federal minimum wage to be increased to $15 an hour.