Hobby Lobby pay rate for new hires is $20.15/hr for full-time employees as of October 2025, and $15.75/hr for part-time and seasonal workers, following a pattern of regular company-announced wage increases in recent years.
What Is Hobby Lobby Pay Rate in 2026?
Hobby Lobby raised its minimum full-time hourly wage to $20.15/hr effective October 5, 2025, according to the company's own announcement. Part-time and seasonal employees start at $15.75/hr. This followed an earlier increase to $19.25/hr for full-time workers in October 2024.
A privately held company is free to set its own wage floor above the legally required minimum wage at its own discretion, as Hobby Lobby has done through a series of company-announced increases.
Why Does Hobby Lobby Pay Full-Time and Part-Time Employees Differently?
Hobby Lobby structures its wage floor around employment status rather than role, with a meaningfully higher minimum for full-time staff than for part-time or seasonal workers. This is a deliberate company policy choice, not something required by minimum wage law, which sets the same floor regardless of full-time or part-time status.
How Does Hobby Lobby's Pay Compare to Other Retailers?
At $20.15/hr for full-time staff, Hobby Lobby's starting wage is above Target's $15/hr floor, above Walmart's $14/hr floor, and roughly in line with Costco's $20/hr floor, despite Hobby Lobby being a smaller, privately held chain rather than a big-box retailer. See our corporate wage guides for the full comparison.
Has Hobby Lobby Raised Pay Before?
Yes, repeatedly. The October 2025 increase to $20.15/hr followed an October 2024 increase to $19.25/hr, part of a multi-year pattern of the company raising its own minimum wage well above legally required levels, similar to the approach taken by Costco.
How Does Hobby Lobby's Pay Compare to the Federal Minimum Wage?
At $20.15/hr, Hobby Lobby's full-time starting wage is nearly three times the $7.25/hr federal minimum wage, and its $15.75/hr part-time rate is still more than double it. Both figures sit well above what federal law requires anywhere in the country.
Is Hobby Lobby's Pay the Same in Every State?
The $20.15/hr full-time floor and $15.75/hr part-time floor are company-wide minimums that apply regardless of state, already above every state's current minimum wage as of 2026, including the highest, Washington's $17.33/hr. See every state's current minimum wage for comparison.
How Was This Pay Data Determined?
Both the $20.15/hr full-time rate and the $15.75/hr part-time rate come directly from Hobby Lobby's own newsroom announcements, rather than third-party aggregator estimates. This makes Hobby Lobby's figures more directly verifiable than pay data for companies that don't publish their own wage floors, since the company states its own starting rates publicly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hobby Lobby's starting pay?
$20.15/hr for full-time employees and $15.75/hr for part-time and seasonal workers, as of October 2025.
Has Hobby Lobby's pay increased recently?
Yes. It rose from $19.25/hr to $20.15/hr for full-time staff between October 2024 and October 2025.
Does Hobby Lobby pay above every state's minimum wage?
Yes, its $20.15/hr full-time floor is above every state's current minimum wage as of 2026.
Is Hobby Lobby's pay set by minimum wage law?
No. It's a voluntary company policy well above the legally required floor in every state where Hobby Lobby operates.
See every state's current minimum wage for comparison, or check the federal minimum wage this pay floor sits well above.
Starting pay figures come from Hobby Lobby's own newsroom announcements; broader average pay across all roles and tenure, as reported by aggregators like Glassdoor and PayScale, can differ from the company's stated starting rate.