Hobby Lobby just set a $21 minimum wage for full-time staff at every store, well above Walmart, Target, and the federal floor.
The Oklahoma-based arts and crafts chain raised its full-time minimum hourly pay to $21 across its entire store fleet as of last Monday, The U.S. Sun reported.
Newly hired full-time workers had been starting at $20.15. Part-time and seasonal staff still earn around $16.50 an hour. The company sets its floor by employment status, not by job title.
Founder and CEO David Green cast the raise as a deliberate choice to share the company’s gains with the people who stock the shelves and run the registers.
In a news release issued last week, Green put the decision in plain terms.
"A pillar of our success is taking care of our employees,"
He went further on the company’s long-standing schedule and benefits philosophy.
"For decades, we have closed our stores on Sundays, and at 8:00pm the rest of the week, to help employees balance their work and personal lives, and have time for rest, family, and worship. We work hard to provide some of the best wages and benefits in retail, which allows us to attract and retain a great team of associates to serve our loyal customers."
Green also framed the timing around the holidays.
"As we head into the joyous holiday season, we are thrilled to share our success as a company with our thousands of dedicated employees,"
That is not the language of a firm waiting for a federal mandate. It is a privately held chain choosing to pay more because it wants to keep good people and keep them rested.
The new full-time rate sits well clear of several national competitors. Target’s pay floor is $15 an hour. Walmart’s company-wide minimum is $14. Costco’s baseline is $20. The federal minimum wage remains $7.25.
Hobby Lobby’s $21 full-time floor is nearly triple the federal number and tops the Costco baseline that often draws praise from labor advocates.
Workers noticed. On Reddit, one associate wrote that the state minimum is still $7.25, “but hobby lobby is still going to pay us $21 an hour for full-time.” Another simply said, “Every bit helps.”
This is not a one-off press release. Hobby Lobby has lifted its pay floor 15 times over the last 18 years.
In 2009, it was already one of the first retailers to roll out a nationwide minimum hourly wage far above the federal $7.25 rate. The pattern has held.
David and Barbara Green founded the company in Oklahoma City in 1972. It now operates more than 1,000 shops and sells more than 80,000 arts, crafts, hobbies, home décor, seasonal, and custom framing products.
Beyond the hourly rate, the company lists medical, prescription, and dental coverage, vacation and sick pay, an employee discount, and a 401(k) with a company match. Store hours stay capped: closed all day Sunday, shut at 8 p.m. the rest of the week.
Those choices cost sales. They also match the values the Greens have built into the business from the start, family time, worship, and a workforce that is not run into the ground for weekend traffic.
Washington has left the federal minimum at $7.25 for years. Hobby Lobby did not wait. It raised its own floor again, put the number in writing, and told employees the company intends to keep attracting and keeping them.
The raise applies at every store. Full-time staff see the $21 rate. Part-time and seasonal workers remain near $16.50. Exact headcount was not released beyond “thousands” of employees, and the company did not publish a calendar date beyond “last Monday” for the effective day and “last week” for the release.
What is clear is the direction. A family-founded, faith-rooted retailer keeps choosing higher base pay and shorter retail weeks without a new statute forcing its hand.
When a company closes on Sunday, sends people home at 8, and still posts a $21 full-time floor, it is not following a D.C. talking point. It is running the business it believes in, and paying the people who make it work.