McDonald’s Corp. plans to raise wages by more than 10% for workers at U.S. restaurants it operates—fresh evidence of the rising wage pressure in the American labor market.

Starting July 1, McDonald’s will pay at least $1 an hour more than the local minimum wage for employees at the roughly 1,500 restaurants it owns in the U.S.

The move follows similar efforts by other major U.S. employers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is raising hourly pay for 500,000 workers to at least $10 next year, and reflects wider public pressures over income inequality as well as intensifying competition for low-skilled workers.

The increase doesn’t apply to employees of franchisees, which operate nearly 90% of the 14,350 U.S. McDonald’s stores—a fact critics seized on. But it applies to some 90,000 workers at all levels of experience and rank at company-owned restaurants and it will lift the average hourly rate to $9.90 on July 1 and more than $10 by the end of 2016, from $9.01 currently.

McDonald’s Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook, who took over on March 1, said the policy is a response to employee surveys and is central to his plans to revive sales after more than two years of declines.