Container Store pays workers on average $50,000

Container Store employees make on average nearly $50,000 a year, CEO Kip Tindell says in his newly released book, Uncontainable.

That's more than double the $23,690 average national salary ($11.39 per hour) of a retail sales worker, according to 2013 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employee compensation has made headlines in recent weeks. Last month, fast-food workers went on strike in support of raising the minimum wage. This week, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon addressed the minimum wage, saying: "It is our intention over time that we will be in a situation where we don't pay minimum wage at all."

Even by paying employees a higher salary, the Container Store is able to make money, Tindell told Business Insider. He says that he believes a great employee is three times more productive than just a good employee.

"You can pay them twice as much and still save, since you get three times the productivity at two times the cost," Tindell, who is also the incoming chairman of the National Retail Federation, said in the interview.

Opponents to a minimum wage increase say it would destroy jobs and increase prices.

The Container Store isn't the only retailer to offer wages above industry norms. A look at a few others:

Costco

Employees start at $11.50 per hour and make $21 per hour on average, well above the national average, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

Costco's low turnover -- less than 6% -- saves the company money and allows it to pay the higher wages, said Occidental College politics professor Peter Dreier, chair of the urban and environmental department, in an interview with USA TODAY earlier this year.

Trader Joe's

Starting pay for a full-time employee is between $40,000 and $60,000 a year, reports ABC News, citing a 2012 article in the Harvard Business Review by Zeynep Ton.

Ton highlighted Trader Joe's and Costco in the article and said these stores are similar in that they cut costs by offering fewer products. They also train employees to do different tasks , ABC News reports.

Whole Foods

In 2013, Whole Foods paid its employees $18.89 per hour or $39,289 a year, according to the company's annual meeting report in February posted on its website.

Whole Foods has made compensation data available to employees since 1986, including CEO John Mackey, Business Insider reports.

How much does Mackey make? In 2007, he said he was reducing his salary to $1 (not including stock options).

"I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money," he wrote in a letter to employees posted by Fast Company.