Bank of America is moving an increase of its minimum wage to $20 forward from 2021 to Q1 2020

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Bank of America (BofA) announced that its employees will begin earning a minimum of $20 per hour by the end of Q1 2020, CNBC reports.

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The wage hike was originally scheduled for 2021, but was accelerated as “part of the company’s commitment to delivering sustainable, responsible growth by being a great place to work,” according to a statement cited by CNBC. The impending increase follows a move by BofA earlier this year to increase its minimum salary from $15 per hour to $17 per hour.

BofA isn’t the only bank with a recent upgrade to employee benefits — Goldman Sachs recently overhauled its parental leave policy. The bank now offers 20 weeks of paid parenting leave to all new parents — whether through birth, surrogacy, or adoption — regardless of their gender or caregiver status, per a memo cited by Yahoo.

The changes apply across the globe and represent an increase from 16 weeks off in the US, Asia Pacific, and other locations (though some locations require a paid parental leave of longer than 20 weeks by law). Goldman has also announced a new program, dubbed “Pathways to Parenthood,” that increases existing stipends for adoption and surrogacy and has added new stipends for egg retrieval and egg donation.

Generous employee benefits can attract strong talent, but also makes in-branch interactions more expensive. The ability to draw more skilled employees to branches can help banks provide better customer experiences, which in turn can improve loyalty.

However, paying more for each branch employee means the cost of in-branch customer interactions increases, which can incentivize banks to offer strong digital or ATM interactions in a move to reduce costs elsewhere: Chase, for example, says that processing a check through its mobile app is 96% less expensive that doing so in a branch, according to The Motley Fool. By educating branch-centric customers on the benefits of using digital channels, banks may be able to get more customers to conduct transactions online, helping offset their higher wages.

Treating workers well could drive customer acquisition by appealing to consumers who want a bank with sustainable practices. Young consumers in particular care about brands’ values, and failure to meet expectations could lead them to take their business elsewhere: For example, the majority of younger consumers (58%) say that a brand’s association with a social cause would affect their likelihood of purchasing that brand, according to a survey of 1,908 DoSomething.org members ages 13-25 cited by AdWeek.

As these consumers gain spending power, their opinion of brands will become more important to banks: If consumers think a bank is misaligned with their values, they’re less likely to become clients of that bank and could turn to other financial institutions instead.

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