Target is raising the minimum pay to $9 an hour

Target is raising pay to $9 an hour starting in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The retailer isn't officially announcing the increase to workers.

Target's decision follows moves by Wal-Mart and TJ Maxx to pay workers more.

The retail industry has been struggling to retain hourly workers, leading to costs associated with recruiting and training new hires.

The average Target cashier currently makes $8.83 an hour, according to data by Glassdoor.

"A modest bidding war has broken out among the retailers who hire from the bottom of the labor pool, buoyed in part by improving sales," Bloomberg Business reports.

Wal-Mart recently announced that it would raise hourly pay for 500,000 of its associates.

By April, all hourly Wal-Mart employees will make at least $9 an hour.

By next February, all hourly Wal-Mart employees will make at least $10 an hour.

Wal-Mart's current sales associates earn an average of $8.86 an hour, which is six cents more than Starbucks baristas' hourly pay, according to a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research.