Hyundai Motor Co. will give workers in Alabama and Georgia a 25% raise over the next four years, following moves by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. to increase pay and ward off possible inroads by the United Auto Workers union.
The “new wage structure” will affect roughly 4,000 production workers at its assembly plant in Alabama along with a new plant being built near Savannah, Georgia, that is scheduled to start production in 2025, the Korean automaker said in a statement Monday.
Last week, Honda told employees it would hike the pay of some U.S. workers 11%, matching the raise UAW members will get in the first year of their more-than-four-year contract, if it’s ratified. Toyota also plans to increase the highest wage for most assembly line workers by 9.2% in January, Bloomberg reported this month.
Hyundai’s move comes as it pours billions into the U.S. market to build electric vehicles and expand its market share. The automaker has come under pressure from labor and civil rights groups in Georgia after a Department of Labor investigation last year uncovered child labor violations at several Alabama companies supplying the Korean automaker.
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