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Full-time Hobby Lobby employees now earn more than entry level journalists…

9:55 AM EDT on April 16, 2013

jennifer palmer opubco

The lady pictured above is Jennifer Palmer. She's a business writer for the Oklahoman. Now that she's wrapped up vulturing out "PICKELOS!"  into the speakers at Sonic, her editor's gave her the cruel and demeaning task of interviewing Hobby Lobby employees that probably make more than she does.

Yes, Hobby Lobby employees have received another raise. Live, laugh, and love it all after the jump...

On Monday, Hobby Lobby announced it raised wages for full-time hourly employees for the fifth year in a row. Full-time hourly employees now earn at least $14 an hour, up from $13, and part-time employees make at least $9.50 an hour, up from $9.

The move will raise the pay of more than 17,726 workers nationwide. The Oklahoma City retailer's new minimum wage for full-time hourly employees is almost double the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Hobby Lobby CEO and founder David Green said hourly workers contribute greatly to the company's success.

“We know that if we reward our employees for their hard work, we will be rewarded in turn with their loyalty and dedication to their job and to our customers,” Green said in a statement.

Hobby Lobby and its affiliate, Hemispheres, employ more than 22,900 people nationwide. The company plans to open 33 additional stores this year, which is expected to create another 1,200 jobs. New Oklahoma stores will include a Hemispheres in Moore.

In 2009, Hobby Lobby established a companywide minimum wage of $10 an hour for full-time employees and has raised it by one dollar each year since. The most recent national minimum wage hike was the same year, when it increased from $6.55 to $7.25.

I know they're kind of nutty on social issues, but lets give the Green family some props for ridiculously over-paying their employees. If your privately held company brings in gabillions of dollars in profit, you should share it with all your employees. At that point, they are working harder than you are. If anything, it makes up for the low wages that Chinese factory workers earn making Hobby Lobby products.

Lets give credit to the Hobby Lobby PR department, too. Every time they give employees a raise there's an article about it in the newspaper. Once again, imagine how much it must burn for a reporter to write a story like this. According to this website, an entry-level journalist makes only $25,000 a year. That's $12 an hour, and about three Wendy's Value Menu items less than what a Hobby Lobby employee earns each hour. I know people with degrees in fields like English or journalism or philosophy don't expect to make a lot of money when they graduate – I have an English degree and was never once contacted by an English corporation for a job – but you at least expect to do better than Paul in the Hobby Lobby frame department. Hell, Paul probably has a degree in one of those damn fields. Sadly, I bet Hobby Lobby was the best paying job he could find.

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