Target’s minimum wage will rise to $15 by the end of 2020, with its first increase — to $11 — coming next month, the company announced Monday.
The retailer giant’s wage announcement comes on the heels of release of their overall strategy earlier this year. The strategy includes remodeling stores, reinventing its business and expanding its online services. The company believes the wage initiative will help with attracting and retaining better quality staff, while improving customer experience, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Target currently employs more than 323,000 people, and said that the $11 hourly wage will also apply to the more than 100,000 casual workers the chain is hiring for the holiday season, according to Reuters.
Target appears to be getting one step ahead of fierce competition for workers in a strengthening labor market. Their wage pledge comes less than three months after the Minneapolis City Council approved a measure stating that all large companies will be required to offer a minimum hourly wage of at least $15 by 2022, Reuters said.
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the United States and one of Target’s biggest competitors, last raised its minimum hourly wage to $10 in 2016. Target’s new minimum wage could encourage competitors such as Wal-Mart to increase their own wages.
According to the Los Angeles Times, thousands of American retail workers have staged protests in a bid to fight for an hourly minimum wage of $15, but the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour.
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