NYSE-listed Target Corporation announced that it will permanently raise its starting wage for US workers to $15 per hour as part of a number of updates that the company is initiating.
All US hourly full-time and part-time team members at stores, distribution centers and headquarters locations will be eligible for the $15 starting wage, which is more than 25% higher than the US industry average.
Target set its 2020 goal of a $15 starting wage in September 2017, and over the last three years has increased wages from a starting wage of $11. The last starting-wage increase was in June 2019 to $13.
Additionally, the company will give a one-time recognition bonus of $200 to its frontline store and distribution center hourly workers for their efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
The one-time $200 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 paid out in April to 20,000 hourly store team leads who oversee individual departments in Target stores.
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.
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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.
“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.” – BusinessNewsAsia.com