It's a good thing to do. They didn't have to do it. They did it. I'll judge people on their actions first, intentions second.
I don't want to undersell this, though. I doubt bank tellers will become contract labor anytime soon, and this will actually represent a significant raise for them.
While I don't think Bank of America has a large percentage of skill workers compared to knowledge workers I think this sends a very forward thinking message.
The debt waters are rising for both consumer and corporate and I assume we'll see a correction soon that once again hits middle class and lower class folks _almost_ ready to make a mobility play.
$20/hr during the coming lean times could be just enough to keep some folks from losing too much ground.
I'm just guessing at the rationale but it does kind of make me want to switch banks in support. Next few years could get rough for +60% of the US population.
It's why their interest rates are abysmal.
Beyond that, on the consumer end they charge rates for random things unless you keep a significant amount of money in your accounts.
If you do then they basically charge you no money and call you once a week begging to redistribute your savings into something with "greater returns" by which they mean stocks.
That's specifically not trickle-down economics. That's just a economics. If you give more money to people, you're just giving more money to people.
The whole point of a trickle-down is that if you give large sums of money to already rich and powerful individuals, typically in the form of tax breaks or subsidies, then they will invest that money in sectors that create jobs which allows the wealth to trickle-down to the people you're positing to help.
I'm not here trying to talk about the merits of either, just pointing out that this is an entirely different style of economics.
That said - the teller is an endangered position.
I was a teller back in the mid-nineties, and even then, depending on the branch, we almost never had a full teller line. There were maybe two full-timers, and the rest (3-4) were part-time and scheduled to cover peak hours.
Other bank employees handle new accounts and whatnot.
Anecdata: My local branch nearly always has a line 2-3 people deep with 3-4 tellers when I need to nip in.
Same can be said with call centers now. The direction is to have callers stay in the IVR and not go to a rep. The rep's aren't exactly going away any time soon, but that's the dream.
Here in CA one birthplace of the internet, I have to print a paper check for the landlord like it's the 70s.
I haven’t written a paper check to a landlord in over 15 years (but I had to do the money bags thing for a few years in China). Heck, even if they don’t have online payments setu, you can usually just auto send them the money as a payee (I do this with my daycare). It’s annoying when I do need to use a paper check once or twice a year, I just go to the bank for a temp check (which is the only time I visit a bank branch also).
I'm still very surprised you have to write a paper check for rent. Your landlord doesn't have online banking? Even if you have to use your bank's online bill pay feature, they will issue and send the paper check for you if your landlord doesn't accept online transfers. For me, my rental management company has online payments, my daycare uses bill pay, everyone else is online or what not, except for some child development classes I'm taking at the local college, which still require paper checks for tuition.
I've heard Zelle is supposed to be some consortium and may be better, but it is still twenty years late and hardly ubiquitous.
Here's one of the articles about this.
https://www.recode.net/2017/5/8/15584268/eric-schmidt-alphab...