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. Both figures carry into 2026 as the company's current wage floor, and Hobby Lobby has not announced a further increase since the October 2025 change.
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. The $4.40/hr gap between the two rates is set entirely by the company and can widen or narrow with future announcements.
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. Other national chains, including Home Depot, McDonald's, and Starbucks, publish their own starting-wage announcements as well, and each sets its floor independently rather than in coordination with competitors. See our corporate wage guides for the full comparison.
How Does Hobby Lobby's Starting Pay Compare to State Minimum Wages?
Because Hobby Lobby's pay rate in 2026 is set company-wide, it's worth lining it up against specific state floors rather than just the national picture. Washington carries the highest statewide minimum wage in the country at $17.13/hr as of January 2026, which is still $3.02/hr below Hobby Lobby's $20.15/hr full-time rate. California's $16.90/hr floor sits $3.25/hr below it, and New York's $16.00/hr statewide rate is $4.15/hr below it. In states that still follow the $7.25/hr federal floor, such as Texas and Mississippi, the gap widens to $12.90/hr, or roughly $26,800 a year for a full-time schedule.
There's one notable exception worth flagging: a handful of cities set their own local minimum wage above the state level, and in at least one case that local floor now exceeds Hobby Lobby's company-wide rate. Seattle's minimum wage for large employers is $20.76/hr as of January 2026, about $0.61/hr higher than Hobby Lobby's $20.15/hr floor. Denver ($18.81/hr), San Francisco and Berkeley ($18.67/hr), and Rockville, Maryland ($18.00/hr) all still sit below Hobby Lobby's rate, but Seattle's large-employer ordinance is a reminder that local minimum wage laws can occasionally out-pace even an above-average corporate wage floor.
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. Each increase has come as a standalone company announcement rather than on a fixed annual schedule, so there's no guaranteed date for the next one.
What Does Hobby Lobby's Starting Pay Add Up to Over a Year?
Worked out over a full year, Hobby Lobby's stated rates translate into a meaningful annual income difference between full-time and part-time work. A full-time employee working 40 hours a week at $20.15/hr for 52 weeks earns $41,912 a year before taxes. A part-time employee working somewhere between 20 and 30 hours a week at $15.75/hr — an illustrative range only, since Hobby Lobby doesn't publish a standard part-time schedule — would earn between roughly $16,380 and $24,570 a year at that hourly rate.
That full-time annual figure is well above what a 40-hour-a-week job pays at most state minimum wages. At Washington's $17.13/hr statewide floor, a full-time schedule works out to about $35,630 a year, roughly $6,282 less than Hobby Lobby's full-time rate. At the $7.25/hr federal minimum still in effect in states like Texas, Mississippi, and several others, the same 40-hour schedule comes to just $15,080 a year, a gap of nearly $26,832 compared to Hobby Lobby's stated full-time pay.
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. The federal minimum wage has held at $7.25/hr since July 2009, so the gap between it and Hobby Lobby's company-set floor has only grown with each of the company's own raises.
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 $17.13/hr. That's a company policy choice rather than a legal requirement — nothing in minimum wage law obligates a retailer to apply one flat rate nationwide, and many multi-state employers instead set pay by local market. See every state's current minimum wage for comparison.
Do Hobby Lobby's Sunday Closures Factor Into Its Pay Picture?
Hobby Lobby is well known for closing every store on Sundays, a long-standing, company-wide policy rather than a store-by-store decision. It's not part of the company's published wage figures, but it's relevant context for anyone comparing total compensation across retailers: a guaranteed closed day removes an entire category of scheduling that hourly workers at many other retailers have to plan around, whether or not it shows up in the hourly rate itself. Hobby Lobby hasn't published how this policy factors into scheduling for full-time versus part-time staff, so it should be treated as general context rather than a stated benefit.
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. The state and federal minimum wage figures used for comparison in this article reflect each state's current statutory rate as of 2026.
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, including Washington's $17.13/hr, the highest statewide rate in the country.
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.
What is the gap between Hobby Lobby's full-time and part-time starting pay?
$4.40/hr — $20.15/hr for full-time employees versus $15.75/hr for part-time and seasonal workers.
How much does Hobby Lobby's full-time starting pay come to in a year?
At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $20.15/hr works out to $41,912 a year before taxes.
Is any city's local minimum wage higher than Hobby Lobby's pay rate?
Yes, in at least one case. Seattle's minimum wage for large employers is $20.76/hr as of January 2026, slightly above Hobby Lobby's $20.15/hr company-wide full-time rate.
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.
