HYUNDAI Motor will give workers in Alabama and Georgia a 25 per cent raise over the next four years, following moves by Toyota Motor and Honda Motor to increase pay and ward off possible inroads by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

The “new wage structure” will affect roughly 4,000 production workers at its assembly plant in Alabama along with a new plant being built near Savannah, Georgia, that is scheduled to start production in 2025, the Korean automaker said on Monday (Nov 13).

Last week, Honda told employees it would hike the pay of some US workers by 11 per cent, matching the raise UAW members will get in the first year of their more-than-four-year contract if it’s ratified. Toyota also plans to increase the highest wage for most assembly line workers by 9.2 per cent in January, Bloomberg reported this month.

Hyundai’s move comes as it pours billions into the US market to build electric vehicles and expand its market share. The automaker has come under pressure from labour and civil rights groups in Georgia after a Department of Labor investigation last year uncovered child labour violations at several Alabama companies supplying the Korean automaker. BLOOMBERG