By Adam Manno For Dailymail.Com and Associated Press

Published: 08:00 EDT, 28 February 2022 | Updated: 11:52 EDT, 28 February 2022

Target, hard-pressed to find staff willing to work for twice the federal minimum wage, will offer up to $24 an hour in a bid to fill positions at its stores and distribution centers.

The Minneapolis-based discount retailer said Monday that it will adopt minimum wages that range from $15 to $24 an hour, with the highest pay going to hires in the most competitive markets. 

The company did not specify the states that will offer $24 an hour at its nearly 2,000 stores around the country. It currently pays a universal starting hourly wage of $15, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but is one of many major retailers that is not unionized.

The move is part of a company plan to spend an additional $300 million on its labor force this year that will also include broader, faster access to health care coverage for its hourly workers.

Target's wage hike is the latest example of companies enticing potential workers with everything from higher pay to free college tuition as Americans quit their jobs at record rates, a phenomenon that has been attributed to pent-up job dissatisfaction and a higher demand for experienced workers, according to the Harvard Business Review.

In December, about 4.3 million people quit or changed their jobs, down from 4.5 million in November.

The 'Great Resignation' is taking place as the country continues to add jobs after massive layoffs in the spring of 2020. In total, 1.48 million Americans were collecting unemployment the week that ended February 12 - the lowest level since March 14, 1970, the government said. 

According to a recent survey of more than 100 major retailers, 96 percent said they're having trouble finding store employees. 

Target will spend $300 million on its labor force this year, including plans for broader, faster access to health care coverage for hourly workers

Target's wage hike is the latest example of companies improving their wages and benefits as they try to lure back workers lost during the pandemic. US employment claims dropped for the third week in a row to 232,000 the week ending February 19

According to a recent survey of more than 100 major retailers, 96 percent said they're having trouble finding store employees even though unemployment figures remain low

'The market has changed,' Target CEO Brian Cornell said. 'We want to continue to have an industry-leading position'

Target CEO Brian Cornell says the new wage hike is necessary to keep up with the times.

'The market has changed,' Cornell told the Associated Press. 'We want to continue to have an industry-leading position.'

Target set a new marker for the retail industry in 2017 when it announced it would increase hourly wages to $15 by 2020. 

But US labor-market dynamics have changed during the pandemic, with many employers facing severe worker shortages. And many of Target's rivals are now paying a minimum of $15 per hour or more.

Target, which has roughly 1,900 stores and 350,000 employees in the US, noted that the turnover rate among its employees is now actually lower than before the pandemic. 

The retailer also said that it was able to exceed its goal of hiring 100,000 seasonal workers at its stores and 30,000 in its supply chain network across the country throughout the 2021 holiday season. 

Target's share price was $199.22 on Monday morning, down from a pandemic high of $261 in August

Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported a surprising burst of hiring in January, with employers adding 467,000 jobs

But Target realized it needs to have an even more localized approach to wages. 

It said it is still doing its analysis and declined to name the areas that will be getting the highest starting wage.

When Target first announced in 2017 it would pay $15 an hour by 2020, it was one of the first major retailers to do so, but during the pandemic, a number of rivals like Best Buy followed suit, with some surpassing Target. 

Costco raised its minimum hourly wages for workers from $16 to $17 last fall. 

Amazon's starting wage is $15 per hour, and the e-commerce giant's nationwide average starting wage for jobs in transportation and fulfillment is $18 an hour.

Walmart remains a laggard: Last fall, it boosted its minimum wage to $12, from the $11 hourly base it established in 2018. Walmart also raised the hourly wages for more than 565,000 store workers by at least a dollar. It's average hourly wage now stands at $16.40.

Many retailers say they're struggling to find workers. 

According to a recent survey of more than 100 major retailers with annual revenues between $500 million to more than $20 billion, 96% said they're having trouble finding store employees. 

Walmart said last year it was offering free college education through its Live Better For U program. Previously workers needed to pay a $1-a-day fee to participate. It comes as companies that employ large numbers of low-wage workers have been offering increasingly generous benefits in an effort to lure workers in a tight job market

The survey conducted by global consulting firm Korn Ferry in January also found that 88% said it was difficult to find distribution-center workers.

Large retailers like Walmart, Amazon, Target and Costco have raised their wages. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, pay among the poorest one-quarter of US workers jumped 5.8 percent in January, compared with a year ago.

Walmart, Amazon and Target joined Starbucks in offering to pay the full cost of college tuition for its workers.

Child care and 'backup care ':  

Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which manages and facilitates child care for companies, says it has seen greater demand for its services during the pandemic. 

Its clients include General Motors, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. 

During the pandemic, 23 percent of employers added virtual mental health therapy sessions as an employee benefit. 

Some retailers have taken more creative approaches to entice workers to stay. 

In July 2021, Walmart said it would pay the full cost of college tuition and books for its roughly 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees.

Amazon and Target joined soon after.

Some companies are also offering employer-based child care.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which manages and facilitates child care for companies, says it has seen greater demand for its services, according to CNBC.

Its clients include General Motors, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. 

More than 100 of the company's new clients added backup care benefits last year. Backup care benefits allow an employee to take their child to a Bright Horizons day-care center if their child care plans don't work out that day.

That demand for workers has steadily pushed up wages, particularly for lower-income workers. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, pay among the poorest one-quarter of workers jumped 5.8 percent in January, compared with a year ago. That is double the gains for the highest-paid one-quarter.

In January, average pay for retail workers, excluding managers, jumped 7.1% from a year earlier to $19.24 an hour. 

That's faster than pre-pandemic gains. In January 2020, pay for retail workers rose 4.2 percent from the previous year. In January 2017, it rose just 1.7 percent from the previous year. 

President Joe Biden took a victory lap at the White House earlier this month after January's better-than-expected jobs report, claiming he has created more employment than any other president in American history.

'America is back to work,' Biden declared.

He pointed to a White House-created chart that showed job growth under his presidency compared to Donald Trump's and going back to Ronald Reagan's.

President Joe Biden took a victory lap at the White House after January's better-than-expected jobs report

'You can't remember another year when so many people want to work in this country. There's a reason - it never happened. Take a look at the chart,' he said.

But the president also conceded that inflation remains high and average, every day items have seen their prices increase. Gas prices surged to $3.423 a gallon on Friday - the highest since 2014.

'A verage people are getting clobbered by the cost of every thing today,' he said. 'Gas prices of the pump are up. We're working to bring them down but they're up. Food prices are up - we're working to bring them down as well.'

The jobs report defied expectations and found employeers added 467,000 positions, despite the Omicron variant and worker shortages.

The US economy is close to what economists consider 'full employment' as the US adds more jobs following massive losses in the spring of 2020

Inflation hit a 40-year high of 7.5 percent, the Labor Department announced earlier this month

The week ending February 12 saw 1.47million totally unemployed, compared to the 1.58million the week ending February 5 and the 1.61million the week ending January 29. February 12's numbers was a 52-year low, with numbers not being that low since the 1.45million the week ending March 14, 1970

The unemployment rate changed little at 4 percent.

'We created 467,000 jobs in January. That’s more than 6.6 million jobs since I took office. 2021 was the greatest year of job creation under any president in history,' Biden tweeted.  

Biden and his officials have consistently bragged about the job number growth during his presidency.

But an Associated Press fact check earlier this month found Biden has taken too much credit. 

While the economy added 6.4 million jobs in 2021, part of that was a natural rebound from what had been the steepest job loss on record in 2020, when 9.4 million jobs were cut. 

The United States has now gained back 87 percent of the 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic. 

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