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Target raises minimum wage

By Kristopher Fraser

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Business

Target will be raising its minimum wage to 15 dollars as workers are currently recovering from the economic impact of coronavirus. Target recently had to close some stores due to coronavirus impact and protests. For workers who have been struggling financially because of coronavirus, this raise will be a welcome reprieve.

In July, store and distribution center workers will also be giving a one-time recognition bonus of 200 dollars to its frontline store and distribution center hourly workers for their efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Starting this week, Target is also offering free access to virtual doctor visits for all team members through the end of the year, regardless of whether they currently subscribe to a Target health care plan. The company also announced additional extensions of a 30-day paid leave for vulnerable team members, as well as free backup care for family members.

“In the best of times, our team brings incredible energy and empathy to our work, and in harder times they bring those qualities plus extraordinary resilience and agility to keep Target on the forefront of meeting the changing needs of our guests and our business year after year,” said Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target Corporation, in a statement. “Everything we aspire to do and be as a company builds on the central role our team members play in our strategy, their dedication to our purpose and the connection they create with our guests and communities.”

All U.S. hourly full-time and part-time team members at stores, distribution centers and headquarters locations will be eligible for the 15 dollar starting wage, which is more than 25 percent higher than the U.S. industry average. Target set its 2020 goal of a 15 dollar starting wage in September 2017, and over the last three years has increased wages from a starting wage of 11 dollar. The last starting-wage increase was in June 2019 to 13 dollars.

To recognize team members’ efforts to meet guests’ needs during the coronavirus pandemic, Target was one of the first in the retail industry to offer a temporary wage increase of 2 dollars and kept the increase in place two months longer than originally announced.

Target increases employee minimum salary and adds bonus system

The one-time 200 dollar recognition bonus will be distributed at the end of July to eligible full-time and part-time hourly team members at both stores and distribution centers. This is on top of bonuses of 250-1,500 dollars paid out in April to 20,000 hourly store team leads who oversee individual departments in Target stores.

With the changes announced today, Target will invest nearly 1 billion dollars more this year in the well-being, health and safety of team members than it did in 2019, including increased wages, paid leaves, bonus payouts, personal protective equipment and a 1 million dollar donation to the Target Team Member Giving Fund.

photo: courtesy of Target

Minimum wage
Target