According to Bloomberg News, Target Corp plans to invest an extra $300 million on benefits and wages in the current year as the competition for labor gears up.
Investing in wages and benefits
The lowest wage limit of $15 per hour will continue to remain the same; however, the payout for the new employees will be as high as $24 per hour, depending on the job description and the local market, as stated by Target Monday. Aside from the same, this retailer also aims to expand the eligibility criteria for the many healthcare plans and hasten the process of accessing the benefits.
There has been extensive ramping up of wages by the retailers as they strive to fill up the positions at warehouses and the stores in the stringent US labor market. Costco Wholesale Corp increased the starting hourly wage to $17 last year. Walmart Inc. increased payout for the new workers, although the starting wage of $12 per hour is far behind by a wide margin compared to that of the competitors.
In the healthcare sector, Target will extend medical plans to the employees being 25 hours per week as an average, which is down from the earlier requirement of 30 hours. The eligible employees will now avail themselves of healthcare benefits up to nine months earlier than before. It depends on the nature of the job.
Bloomberg News reports that Target owns more than 1900 stores and has more than 350,000 employees in the United States on its payroll. The company based in Minneapolis’s sale in the fiscal year 2021 is anticipated to amount to $105 billion, as per average of estimates by the analysts, data being compiled by Bloomberg. The fourth-quarter earnings of Target are scheduled to be reported on Tuesday.
