Target is raising its minimum wage as part of its latest barrage in the war for talent
- Target will raise its starting wage to $15 an hour in the near future.
- During Target's 2018 earnings call, CEO Brian Cornell announced that the starting wage would get a boost by 2020.
- The company's anticipated wage increase comes in the wake of Amazon's minimum wage hike to $15 an hour for all associates.
Some Target employees might be getting a pay bump in the near future.
During Target's earnings call for the fiscal year 2018, CEO Brian Cornell announced that the company was "committed" to raising its starting wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
He also singled out the "dedicated" 350,000 or so Target employees for helping the company achieve its strongest year in sales growth in over a decade, and outlined the company's goal of providing more training, additional hours, and wage increases going forward.
"Thanks to the dedication of Target's team, we delivered our strongest traffic and comparable sales growth in well over a decade, and our 2018 Adjusted EPS set a new all-time record for the company," Cornell said in a statement.
Target's wage increase announcement comes about in an increasingly tight labor market, in which retailers have been prompted to sweeten the deal in order to attract prospective employees. Last year, Target increased its minimum wage to $12 an hour for all hires made after September 16, 2018.
Meanwhile, politicians like US Sen. Bernie Sanders are also pushing major companies - like Amazon, which hiked its minimum wage to $15 an hour in October 2018 - to provide employees with a living wage.
Speaking with CNBC's Becky Quick, Cornell said that the eventual wage hike, along with other compensation-related investments, would make Target "an employer of choice."
Cornell added that the news garnered a "great response from team members."
"They recognize we're investing in their futures," Cornell said. "And we're getting great responses from communities across the country because they know we're going to invest in our team."
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