Target, the second-largest discount retail chain, will raise employee pay to at least $9 an hour this year, following in the footsteps of Walmart, a person with knowledge of the matter has told Bloomberg.
Target will make the change next month, though there won’t be a formal announcement, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the move isn’t public. Walmart, Target’s biggest rival, revealed plans in February to boost hourly pay to at least $9 by April and then to $10 by next February.
Retailers are putting more money in paychecks in an effort to reduce turnover and cope with an increasingly competitive labour market. Payrolls rose in 39 states in January and the unemployment rate fell in 24 of them, figures from the Labour Department showed Tuesday.
Walmart’s move put pressure on Target to respond, Burt Flickinger, managing director at Strategic Resource Group in New York, said last month. “It’s a competitive market for workers,” he said.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
