Financial services giant USAA joined a growing list of companies to raise its minimum wage above federal standards, setting it at $16 an hour and expanding its parental leave policy as the company seeks to attract top talent in a tight local labor market.

That brings the annual base pay at the San Antonio company, which provides insurance, banking and investing services, to $33,000 for full-time workers, the company announced Tuesday.

Corporations — including Starbucks, Walmart, McDonald’s Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., — have announced increases to their minimum pay over the last year as lawmakers in Washington push to more than double the U.S. minimum wage from $7.25 an hour. Labor groups across the nation have been lobbying for the increase. Four states adopted measures on election night — Arizona, Colorado, Maine and New Mexico — to dramatically boost their minimum wages by 2020.

In Texas, Democrats are fighting to increase the state’s minimum hourly pay from $7.25 to $10.10. The San Antonio City Council last year approved a 75 cent increase to the base pay for city employees to $13.75. The COPS/Metro Alliance and the Service Employees International Union were seeking a $15-an-hour minimum wage as part of a national push by labor groups in major cities across the U.S.

“We’re making incremental progress toward the $15” minimum-wage goal, said Lori Steward, human resources director for the city.

USAA is one of the first major local employers to embrace such a high minimum wage. The change, which took effect Feb. 5, will likely affect about 1,000 workers — mainly entry-level call center workers, called member service representatives, said USAA spokesman Matthew Hartwig. The company, which provides financial services to the military and their families, didn’t have a set minimum wage before this year, Hartwig added. Most of its 30,000 employees earn well above $16 an hour, he said.

USAA also introduced a new parental leave policy providing 12 weeks of paid time off for mothers and fathers when a child is born or is adopted, beginning in July. The company previously gave new mothers up to six weeks of short-term disability leave and didn’t provide any time off for new fathers.

San Antonio’s low unemployment and tight labor market was not a factor in establishing minimum pay, Mark Reid, USAA executive vice president for human resources, said in an interview. USAA employs about 18,000 people in San Antonio and is the second-largest employer in the area after H-E-B.

“It was really just doing the right thing for our employees and what they are looking for,” Reid said. “We want to inspire the top performers here and across the country to come to USAA …We are focused on delivery to our 12 million members.”

San Antonio Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Richard Perez said other employers will take note.

“That is not unlike USAA to lead the market in this trend. It also is a function of the market and the competing needs for talent, not only in San Antonio but nationwide. USAA continues to raise the bar in a positive way. It’s good news for San Antonio and good news for the people in the military who use USAA,” Perez said.

The move comes as San Antonio’s economy takes off. The area’s unemployment rate is 4.2 percent, lower than the state unemployment rate of 4.9 percent and the national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent for March. Wages are also rising at a rapid clip here, increasing 8.1 percent in 2016, compared with 2.1 percent wage growth across the state, said Keith Phillips, a Dallas Federal Reserve Bank senior economist based in San Antonio.

“San Antonio’s wage growth was particularly strong last year. The labor market here is tighter than the state average,” Phillips said.

But San Antonio’s average wages still trail the state and nation. In December, San Antonio’s average wage was $23.12 an hour, compared with $24.94 in Texas and $26.03 nationally, Phillips said, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

dhendricks@express-news.net