Target announced yesterday that it is raising its starting wage to $15 an hour.
The retailer had offered a $13/hour starting wage, but increased that to $15/hour when the pandemic hit, calling the extra $2/hour "hazard pay."
“Team members have always been essential to Target’s success, and the current crisis has only amplified how their work serves communities and families every day,” the company said in a statement.
The Washington Post writes that this move makes Target "the first major retailer to permanently increase pay during the pandemic." It also "makes good on a 2017 promise to raise its hourly wage to $15 by the end of 2020. The company has incrementally raised starting pay in recent years: to $11 in 2017, $12 in 2018, and $13 in 2019. The latest bump will affect about 275,000 of its 350,000 employees, the company said."
The Post goes on to say that "the announcement comes as many retailers do away with pandemic-related wage increases. Kroger stopped offering “hero pay” of an extra $2 an hour on May 17. By the end of May, Starbucks had done away with its $3-an-hour pandemic raises, and Amazon had stopped paying warehouse workers an extra $2 in hazard pay."
- KC's View:
-
And, remarkably, Target is doing this at a time when finding employees is a lot easier than it was just a few months ago. So good for them.
