When
Walmart announced it was raising pay to $9 this year and $10 next year, the parent company of
T.J. Maxx and Marshalls quickly followed suit, but Target wasn't having any of it. Well,
things change:
Target Corp., the second-largest discount retail chain, will raise employee pay to at least $9 an hour this year, following in the footsteps of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and TJX Cos., a person with knowledge of the matter said.
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.
As with Walmart, $9 an hour still isn't enough to live on—we're still talking about well under $20,000 a year for full-time work. And as with Walmart, hours are as much the issue as hourly pay—too many workers are stuck in part-time jobs with unpredictable hours, their hours and therefore their paychecks fluctuating sharply from week to week but rarely if ever hitting the level they'd need to make a living.
That said, this is progress. The retail industry is taking steps toward $9 as a standard minimum wage, which means a raise for a lot of workers. It's good. It's just not enough. These improvements aren't gifts from the retail industry, they're a product of worker struggle. The challenge now is for worker activists to take these wins and increase momentum rather than letting up on the fight.