With over 200,000 employees, Costco Wholesale is a giant in retail. But, do these employees enjoy additional perks like in-store and online merchandise discounts? Unfortunately, no! But there’s more to the story.
Costco does not give discounts to its employees, but it offers them numerous excellent benefits, including health insurance, overtime pay, extended shopping hours, free Exclusive Membership, and 401k plan enrollment.
If you plan on working at Costco in the future, this article is for you! Read to find out how you can exclusively benefit from being a Costco employee.
Working at Costco: Here are 9 Employee Benefits and Perks
Current and former employees often rave about the perks of working at Costco, despite not receiving any discount post-employment. Let’s look at the nine benefits you receive working for this warehouse retailer.
1. Regularly Raised Minimum Wage
While it’s not technically a “benefit,” Costco pays its employees well above the minimum wage range. With the minimum wage of $17 (as of 2021), the company saves money in training new employees by keeping frontline workers happy.
Meanwhile, supervisors also keep getting regular bumps in their pay. Impressively, the $1 increase in Costco’s minimum wage came less than a year after the previous $1 increment. Thus, employees know that they will be well paid, and the anticipation of wage increments keeps them in the company for the long haul.
2. Overtime Pay on Sundays
Despite it not being a requirement by the government, Costco ensures that all of its employees, part-time or full-time, receive time-and-a-half or overtime pay on Sundays. This is regardless of how many hours the employee works per week. If you do the math, then an employee earning the minimum wage of $17 hourly will earn $25.50 instead every Sunday they are on the job.
3. Health Benefits and Life Insurance
Costo employees’ access to employer-funded health benefits is probably one of their biggest perks. With increasing healthcare costs worldwide, the impact of health insurance on the employee’s overall spending cannot be underestimated.
Even if this does not reflect in the pay, access to such health benefits saves employees thousands of dollars yearly. In addition, you also get the advantage of a dental coverage plan for basic procedures, vision care, and basic life insurance.
4. 401k Plan Enrollment
Retirement plans may not be an immediate concern for many people just kicking off their careers. However, Costco uses 401k plan enrollment to ensure employee retention for the long term. For each dollar, Costco matches 50 cents, up to $500 annually. The money matched by the employer can add up to a significant amount, offering you a cushion once you retire.
5. Free Executive Membership
Another employee perk is free executive membership, which costs around $120. However, the real benefit of the executive membership is the 2% cashback up to $1000 per year. Moreover, employees also get three more basic memberships valued at $60 each and a lifetime membership card for 25 years and over.
6. Paid Vacation
In addition to sick days and holidays, you also get paid vacation at Costco annually. After one year, you have one paid week off, which increases with time and tenure. For example, paid vacation increases to two weeks after two years and three weeks after five years of employment. This can go up to five weeks after fifteen years at Costco if you aim at working for the wholesale retailer for a long time.
While you cannot precisely say how much money you will be taking home due to this policy owing to various factors at play, this is a welcome perk to keep people employed for a longer period.
7. Annual Bonuses
At Costco, the longer you work, the more benefits you enjoy. The company provides two extra checks per year for long-tenured employees who work by the hour.
8. Free Turkey on Thanksgiving
While not a traditional “benefit,” Costco employees can pick up a free turkey for themselves on Thanksgiving. Not to mention all the free samples they get to eat! Just one more reason to work at Costco.
9. After-Hours Shopping
The employees also get to skip the long checkout lines. They can shop after hours, making it easy to get everything on their list quickly. They also get their hands on the hot ticket and clearance items before anybody else. Now that’s a perk if there ever was one!
Why Doesn’t Costco Offer A Discount to its Employees?
Now you may be wondering that if Costco offers such great benefits, why not add employee discounts in the mix too? But there is a good reason they do not provide any special price deduction for employees, and it’s all about their business model.
Costco majorly makes money from their membership fee rather than their merchandise, already sold at excellent deals. If the company were to offer employee discounts, they would lose money. So instead, they offer free membership to employees and fantastic benefits.
Are Part-Time Costco Employees Eligible for Health Benefits?
So many employees love working at Costco (Hello, 4.1-star Glassdoor rating!) because their benefits do not just limit to full-time workers. Even part-time employees get health benefits and other perks at this retail warehouse giant. And, as you work your way up the Costco employment ladder, these benefits only increase – making them an excellent employer.
The Bottom Line
Costco employees do not get a discount, both in-store and online. However, they get compensated with excellent benefits for both full-time and part-time employees. These benefits include health insurance, vision care, life insurance, excellent minimum wage, dual yearly bonuses, free executive membership, and a 50% 401k matching.
Apart from this, you also get perks like shipping after hours, getting a free turkey on Thanksgiving, and getting the first pick of clearance and hot-ticket items. All these offerings almost make you forget that Costco does not have marked-down merchandise prices for employees. With such significant advantages to working at Costco, the multinational corporation has deservedly earned both current and former employees’ love (and recommendation).
