Target is permanently raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The corporation, one of the top 10 largest retailers in the United States, released a statement saying the minimum wage raise will go into effect on July 5. It will be implemented concurrently with a “recognition bonus” of $200 to front-line workers as thanks for their work during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Hill.
“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,” Target’s chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said 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,” he said.
The company, which promised to make the move in 2017 and has been slowly increasing pay, says the move will affect 275,000 workers.
Retailers across the country have been pushed by the “Fight for $15” movement, backed by workers unions across the country, to raise the minimum wage.
Critics argue that raising the minimum wage ultimately kills jobs, increases costs, and hurts the communities that the raise is supposed to help.
One of Target’s largest competitors, Walmart, began raising its minimum wage earlier this year to $12 from $11.
