Great piece on QuikTrip's compensation strategy.

The economic case for paying your cashiers $40K a year ? Quartz (http://qz.com/65322/the-economic-case-for-paying-your-cashiers-40k-a-year/)

~$20 an hour is impressive for an entry level employee. Way to go QuikTrip!

That is really fine starting wage. Might be able to keep your experienced employees that way. Good for QuickTrip and their employees.

Of the three profiled here only Costco is public, QT and Trader Joe's are private which makes it much easier to run your business as you see fit. Going public is usually the worst thing to do if you wish to retain control over how you operate without interference. If you look at those places that typically pay an average than higher wage than their competition most are privately held. Costco's chairman is one of the founders, the other founder is on the Board of Directors and they (and the board) own a significant amount of stock.

Hobby Lobby typically pays more than Michael's (public, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Highfields Capital Management) or JoAnn's (private, bought out in 2010 by private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners) which is widely regarded as their direct competition. Public and equity firm type of owned companies tend to carry a lot more debt than private companies grown by the founders. A company owned by private equity is usually run more like a public company because of the debt service that is usually incurred during the acquisition. Due to their ownership model they have the ability to operate without this interference.

... and they did it without government intervention ...

And just think of the money us taxpayers are saving by not having to subsidize the earnings of a QT cashier.

By the way, based on the flawed opinions of many, it would seem that candybars and liters of soda at QT should cost like $6. Because apparently you cant raise wages by 20% without cost of goods going up like, 100%.

According to their website, they pay full time a little over $10 an hour as a base, and most employees start as part timers making $8 something an hour... so I'm guessing the bonuses are what get the full timers up to the almost 40k.

Be Rewarded For Your Hard Work | QuikTrip (http://www.quiktrip.com/Jobs/Store/Wages)

It's higher than federal minimums, but not that different than other convenient store chains (7-11 tends to run from $8-$12 depending on hours, for example). They're not going to employ 16 year olds, which makes a bit of difference.