Target Raising Its Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour
(CNN) -- Target said Wednesday it will raise its minimum wage for employees to $15 up from $13 starting July 5, a few months ahead of a deadline it set three years ago.
The retailer had made a pledge in 2017 to increase wages to $15 an hour by December 2020. The company said the new minimum wage applies to all part-time and full-time employees at its discount stores, distribution centers and its headquarters.
A tight labor market before the pandemic had prompted major retailers such as Walmart and Amazon to announce wage hikes. Amazon said in 2018 that it was raising its minimum wage to $15.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25, and it hasn't increased in over a decade. But in recent years, some cities and states have implemented their own $15 an hour wage laws.
Target also said it would give a $200 onetime bonus to all workers who provided essential services to customers during the pandemic. The bonus is on top of separate bonuses of $250 to $1,500 the company gave to 20,000 hourly employees in April.
Beginning this week, all workers will also get access to free virtual health care visits until the end of the year, regardless of their insurance plans.
"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 CEO Brian Cornell, said in a statement.
Target last increased its minimum wage to $13 from $11 in June 2019.
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