Good morning, Mr. Chair, vice‑chairs and committee members.
As you know, Costco's unique organizational structure sets it apart from other grocers. Costco is a warehouse club that enables members to benefit from purchasing power. This helps us keep our prices as low as possible. Through good times and bad, Costco's daily mission has stayed the same. This mission is to offer our members quality goods at the lowest possible prices. This is Costco's business model.
You have asked grocers about their strategy to help stabilize food prices for Canadians. Costco's answer is the following. We'll stay true to our business model. By working to provide the best possible prices for our members, we'll help stabilize and lower food prices for all Canadians.
Our time‑tested business model shows that our strategy works. Given the value that we offer to the market, our membership base is strong. It has grown significantly in recent years. In addition, our membership renewal rate in Canada and the United States is over 92%.
In our confidential presentation submitted to the committee on November 2, 2023, we provided significant details about some specific methods that help Costco stabilize and lower food prices. To be clear, this presentation includes only a few examples of our actions in this area and isn't exhaustive.
Publicly, we can share the following information. We've invested even more in our employees. We have 53,000 employees in Canada, up from 48,000 in 2021. Our starting hourly wage was increased to $18.50 in September 2023. This is above the highest minimum wage rate required in all the provinces where we operate. The average hourly wage is up from $27.63 in 2019 to $30.20 today.
A few things bear repeating. Just over 57% of our employees work full time for 40 hours a week. Our part‑time employees are guaranteed a minimum of 25 hours per week, but they work 28 hours per week on average. All our full‑time and part‑time Canadian employees and their dependents have access to health care benefits paid in full by Costco. We also have one of the best defined contribution pension plans in Canada. A cashier who has worked full time at Costco for six years makes over $70,000 a year.
We've also continued to invest in our Kirkland Signature private label brand. We've increased the number of food items for the label by over 12% since 2019. Kirkland Signature products are designed to match or exceed the quality of national branded items, resulting in savings of around 20%.
We've invested in Canadian suppliers. Over 61% of our Kirkland Signature items are now manufactured in Canada. We've mitigated price increases and accelerated price decreases as input and commodity prices drop, despite the weakening of the Canadian dollar.
We're always looking to decrease prices for our members. For example, since the start of 2023, we've decreased prices on hundreds of items. We'll continue to decrease prices when we can. We continually comparative shop at our competitors to ensure that we're living up to our promise to our members to offer the best prices.
We continue to face pricing challenges. The cost of commodities continues to increase. The Canadian dollar remains weak against the American dollar. We continue to receive multiple price increase announcements from our suppliers. For example, some provinces have minimum milk prices. This often means that we're forced to charge more for milk than we would like. As a result, we decided to make regular donations to the Breakfast Club of Canada. Since 2016, we've donated over $1.6 million to the club.
With respect to the grocery code of conduct, we strictly adhere to the principles of our code of ethics, which require us to obey the law, take care of our members and employees, respect our suppliers and reward our shareholders.
It isn't difficult for us to support the principles of the code. We'll continue to review how the proposed code will work, who will choose to apply it, how disputes will be resolved and, in the end, how it will really impact—
