Target, the US’s second largest discount retailer, has become the latest big employer to raise its minimum wage.
From next month employees will be paid at least $9 an hour, according to reports, as the retailer joins Walmart and others in raising its basic hourly rate.
Walmart, TJ Maxx, Gap and Ikea have all recently increased wages more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In a statement Target said that it did not disclose its wage policies, but that it does look to offer competitive wages and was evaluating pay levels.
The nation’s fourth largest retailer overall, Target is currently attempting to save about $500m a year. As part of its efforts, the company recently laid off 1,700 corporate employees and announced that 1,400 of open jobs would not be filled. Target currently employs about 347,000 workers in the US.
The wage increase reports come after Target became a focus of a “living wage” campaign by UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy group. The group spent $5,000 on online ads on sites like Google, Microsoft and Facebook that read: “Did you know there’s a Walmart near you that pays higher minimum wage than Target?”
“We can have a lot of impact for a little bit of money,” Karin Roland, organizing director of UltraViolet, told Reuters a week ago. “As far as we are concerned, that’s a starting place. If we see a strategic need to expand it, we will.”
The group Our Walmart, which has lobbied for higher wages and better treatment at Walmart stores, has also claimed credit for the Target’s announcement.
“As retail workers, we’re glad to see that the pressure we are putting on Walmart is translating to real raises for our co-workers throughout the industry,” Barbara Gertz, an Our Walmart member from Colorado, said in a statement on Wednesday. “We are encouraged by Target’s actions today and will continue to fight for $15 an hour and access to the full-time work we need to put food on the table.”
Gertz also used this opportunity to highlight the other plight of low-wage workers: not enough hours. Low-wage workers and their advocates insist that in order to make ends meet the workers need both better pay and full-time schedules.
As the competition for low-wage workers heats up and the labor market tightens, even companies like Dollar General are adjusting their policies to remain competitive. The discount store chain recently announces that while it won’t be raising its wage like Walmart and others, it will be offering its staff more hours.
Reports of the hike in minimum wage came as Target agreed to pay $10m to settle a class action lawsuit brought after hackers compromised the personal details of 110 million customers.
The settlement, which has yet to be approved by the courts, will pay up to $10,000 to people who can prove they were harmed by the breach. It also requires Target to improve its cybersecurity practices.
