Bangor Savings Bank has raised the minimum rate it pays employees in all positions to $15 an hour, the bank said Thursday.
The increase, which took effect Feb. 25, supports the bank’s objective to pay a living wage to all employees regardless of location, position, or whether they are full-time or part-time, Bangor Savings said in a statement.
In January 2016, Bangor Savings raised its minimum wage to $13 an hour. The bank said it has made three subsequent wage increases since then as part of a living wage initiative.
“We have the best employees, and our living wage initiative is just one of the many ways we can support them to make their lives and the lives of their families better,” Bangor Savings President and CEO Bob Montgomery-Rice said in the statement.
“The initiative, however, goes far beyond our organization. It stands as an investment in the communities where we each live and work. The wage allows employees to save and provides an ability to spend. That spending, in turn, strengthens local businesses and the towns they serve.”
The wage increase will affect about 40 percent of the bank’s 836 employees in Maine and New Hampshire, either by bringing them up to the new minimum or increasing their pay through a “compression” wage adjustment, the bank said. The company’s minimum wage is now $5 more than Maine’s minimum wage, and more than double New Hampshire’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
The investment in its workforce comes as Bangor Savings continues to grow in Bangor and beyond, the bank said.
The first building of its new headquarters on the Bangor waterfront will open in June and, with the completion of a second building later this year, the campus will house more than 400 Bangor-based employees with the capacity to grow to 500.
The bank will relocate branches in Biddeford and Pittsfield to new locations within those communities over the next four months, the bank said, and it expects to complete the acquisition of Colebrook, New Hampshire-based Granite Bank in early April.
Also, voting recently ended for Bangor Savings Bank Foundation’s popular Community Matters More grant-making program, which was expanded to include Rockingham County, New Hampshire, for the first time this year, it said.
J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:
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