by Sahid Fawaz

IKEA announced today that it will raise its average minimum wage to $10.76 an hour. 

According to the New York Times, IKEA “said it would not impose an across-the-board minimum wage for its stores, but would instead set a minimum for each store based on the cost of living in that particular area.

For example, the minimum wage will run from a low of $8.69 an hour at its stores in Pittsburgh and West Chester, Ohio, to $13.22 an hour at its store in Woodbridge, Va.

Ikea said that its new average minimum wage, $10.76 an hour, was $3.51 above the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.”

This is very welcome news given that the federal minimum wage is at one of its lowest points historically in terms of real purchasing power. With cities like Seattle and San Francisco raising their minimum wage and companies like IKEA doing so as well, we hope that the federal government will enact legislation that will lift the wage for all American workers.