New Announcements from Corporate Retailers on Increases in Minimum Wages

Posted by: Emma Berdanier on April 15th, 2019

With unemployment at historic lows, retailers are under pressure to find qualified employees and have been raising pay to lure or keep hourly and part-time workers, resulting in the following minimum hourly wage increases:

• Target Corp – raising the minimum hourly wage for its employees from $12 to $13 an hour effective June 2019. This marks the 3^rd time in less than two years that the retailer has increased its minimum wage. Target plans to raise its hourly wages for workers to $15 in 2020.
• Amazon – last autumn announced a minimum hourly wage of $15 for its U.S. employees
• Costco – ups its minimum wage to $15 an hour. The increase is the second one in less than a year. Costco also will boost pay for supervisors and have begun offering paid parental leave to hourly employees.
• Walmart – the largest private U.S. employer with about 1.5 million workers, increased its beginning wage to $11 an hour in early 2018.

Sources:  ASA Staffing Today, March 8, 2019 (MarketWatch, 03/07/19, Sarah Nassauer); ASA Staffing Today, April 5, 2019 (Associated Press, 04/04/19, Anne D’Innocenzio)