Target to Pay More Than $70M in Bonuses to Hourly Employees

Target said earlier this week that it will spend more than $70 million on another round of employee bonuses during the coronavirus pandemic, as the holiday shopping season picks up. The retailer will pay $200 to its more than 350,000 employees who work at stores, distribution centers and contact centers. It will pay the bonuses by early November. Target has given other bonuses during the pandemic. It paid bonuses ranging from $250 to $1,500 to 20,000 team leads who oversaw store departments in April. It provided $200 bonuses to all full- and part-time hourly employees in July. And it gave performance bonuses, which ranged in size, to store directors, executive team leaders and salaried distribution center leaders in July. The company also temporarily raised its wages by $2 an hour in March as coronavirus cases rose.

Total Retail's Take: Much like my take when it was announced earlier this month that Lowe's was earmarking $100 million more in bonuses for its employees, I offer the same kudos to Target and its leadership team for this latest round of worker bonuses. Target benefited from being declared an "essential" retailer, which allowed its stores to remain open at the height of the pandemic earlier this year. Furthermore, the retailer's previous investments in its supply chain and technology infrastructure are bearing fruit in the form of skyrocketing digital sales. Case in point: sales at stores open for at least one year grew 24.3 percent to $22.6 billion during May, June and July. That marked the strongest quarterly sales growth in Target's history, sending the company's profit soaring 80.3 percent to $1.7 billion last quarter. In addition, digital sales, including delivery and curbside pickup, increased 195 percent during the quarter. Given those numbers, it's only right for the organization to redistribute those profits to its frontline and hourly workers, who are putting themselves in harm's way to ensure Target remains operational.