CVS Health plans to increase the starting wage rate for hourly employees to $11 an hour, effective in April, the company announced.
The company, which has a store at 100 S. Highway 160 in Pahrump, also plans to adjust pay ranges and rates for many of its retail pharmacy technicians, front store associates and other hourly retail employees later in the year.
The company is also creating a new paid parental leave program.
Effective April 1, full-time employees who welcome a new child into their home can take up to four weeks away from work at 100 percent of their pay “to ensure the newest addition to their family gets off to a strong start in life,” the company said in its announcement last week.
The improvements in employee wages and benefits, which are long-term and sustainable compensation investments, total $425 million annually.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to the patients, customers and communities we serve, we said that we would invest our tax savings back into our business, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” CVS Health President and CEO Larry Merlo said.
As part of the company’s fourth-quarter 2017 earnings announcement, CVS Health indicated that it anticipated spending the remaining tax benefit on investments in data analytics, care management solutions and other items, including debt reduction related to its planned acquisition of Aetna.