Ikea is increasing its starting pay to $16 per hour starting in 2022

• Ikea is increasing its base pay to $16 per hour starting in 2022.
• That applies to all US Ikea locations, the company announced on Tuesday morning.

Ikea is increasing its base pay to $16 per hour, the company announced Tuesday.

The move goes into effect on January 1, 2022, and will raise its average employee pay to $20 per hour. At some locations in the US, base pay will start at $17 or $18 per hour.

In addition to the pay increase for new employees, Ikea is giving existing staff a benefits increase: "a minimum of five weeks of paid time away from work for all co-workers, education assistance, back-up child and adult care, and more inclusive health care benefits," the company said in a press release.

The pay increase will impact all Ikea employees, including part-time and seasonal staff, the company said.

Ikea is the latest retail chain the US to increase wages - a response in part to employees across the retail and service industries quitting en masse, and in part to competition for workers from the likes of Amazon and Walmart.

Chains have struggled to attract workers as millions of Americans rethink their relationship to work amid the ongoing global pandemic. Increasing pay and benefits, like Ikea is doing, is one of the main ways that companies have sought to bring workers back.

"We will continue to seek opportunities to grow our compensation and benefits offer and share our success with our co-workers," Ikea US CEO Javier Quiñones said. Ikea employs over 17,000 people in the US - a number that will assuredly swell with the upcoming holiday season.

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