As the holiday season quickly approaches, Target will offer its employees another $200 bonus for manning its stores and distribution centers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The bonus is the fourth additional incentive the Minneapolis retailer has offered its workers this year as front-line workers who cannot work at home during the pandemic. Eligible workers include hourly store, distribution center and contact center employees, as well as seasonal employees.
In all, the new bonuses will cost the company more than $70 million.
This bonus will go to more than 350,000 eligible employees including hourly workers in stores and distribution centers, as well as hourly headquarters employees who support store employees and customers.
“In a year like no other, I’m proud of what this team has accomplished and grateful for the care and connection they’ve provided our guests and communities,” says Melissa Kremer, Target’s chief human resources officer, in a statement Monday morning. “Target’s success this year is a direct result of our team members turning our purpose into action and meeting our guests’ changing needs day after day.”
Employees should receive the bonuses by early November.
Target said it has spent nearly $1 billion so far this year in additional investments in its workers’ safety and well-being beginning with bonuses to its store team leads in April. In July, Target permanently increased its starting minimum wage to $15.
Target’s bonuses don’t extend to the contract workers that shop and deliver items to customers for its grocery delivery company Shipt. A group of Shipt workers planned to protest outside of Target headquarters in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon to voice their dissatisfaction with a new payment algorithm they say has reduced Shipt shoppers’ pay.
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