We just got another sign that wage growth is here
In its earnings report filed on Wednesday, home retailer Bed Bath & Beyond signaled that it will be raising wages.
The company gave little detail about when it would raise wages, or what the magnitude of the increase would be, saying only that in 2015 it expects earnings will be impacted by, "an increase in investments in compensation and benefits in 2015 beyond those historically planned."
On the company's earnings conference call, Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Susan Lattmann added a little bit of color, saying the company was planning for a wage increase, "to continue to assure that we preserve our ability to attract and retain the best associates."
And so while we don't know much of anything about how much Bed Bath & Beyond will be raising wages this year, what we know is that they appear poised to be the latest in a string of retailers raising wages. We've seen McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Target, and TJ Maxx-parent TJX all announce wage increases in the last several months.
And in late March we highlighted a series of charts from Deutsche Bank economist Torsten Sløk that argued wage pressures are here and that workers are going to see wages go up in the coming months.
This theme is not going away.