Charter raises minimum hourly pay

STAMFORD — Telecommunications giant Charter Communications, which has faced many employee complaints about its response to the coronavirus pandemic, is raising its minimum wage for all hourly workers from $15 per hour to $20 per hour during the next two years.

Stamford-based Charter said in a statement this week that it had been holding discussions about increasing its minimum wage, but that “in light of the current environment and the challenges many are facing, Charter is beginning that process today.”

A “small percentage” of Charter hourly workers make minimum wage, a company spokeswoman told Hearst Connecticut Media. She declined to disclose the exact number. All of the Stamford-based hourly staff make more than $15 per hour.

Regardless of their current hourly wages, all field technicians and customer-service representatives will immediately receive a $1.50 increase, which will be retroactively applied to their wages back to the beginning of March. They are scheduled to earn a second $1.50 increase in March 2021, in addition to their annual merit increases. By 2022, all hourly employees will make at least $20 per hour.

Technicians and customerservice representatives belong to a group of more than 80,000 “frontline” staff nationwide who serve the nearly 30 million customers who use its Spectrum-branded cable, internet and phone services.

In total, the Fortune 100 firm employs about 95,000.

“These employees provide essential communications services to our residential and business communities, including hospitals, first responder and government facilities, which help flatten the curve and protect the country,” the statement said.

Connecticut’s hourly minimum wage is now $11, but it is increasing to $15 in 2023, through legislation signed into law last May by Gov. Ned Lamont.

Among other major changes in compensation and benefits, Charter announced March 19 that it was giving all of its employees an additional three weeks of paid time off this year that could be used for any coronavirus-related purposes. It also said that it will start allowing some of its employees to work remotely.

It made those changes after it had said March 14 that it expected all of its employees to keep reporting to work unless they were sick or caring for someone who was ill during the ongoing pandemic.

Many employees in Stamford had expressed their unhappiness in the past month that they were expected to keep reporting to their regular work sites, while other companies had already let their employees work from home in response to the spread of coronavirus.

Some of the Charter workers who have contacted Hearst Connecticut Media said they were only partially satisfied with the company’s new provisions and that they objected to their employer keeping its offices open.

Charter has declined to comment on how many employees are now working remotely.

In Stamford, at least one employee has tested positive for COVID-19, while others have shown symptoms, according to company emails to employees. The company said in those emails that it had responded to those cases by asking some employees to self-quarantine, while it had cleaned and disinfected the affected workspaces before reopening them.

In total, more than 1,300 employees are based at Charter’s main offices at 400 Atlantic St., and the adjacent 201 Tresser Blvd., in downtown Stamford.