Target Cuts Workers’ Hours after Vowing to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 By 2020

Checkout lane at a Target store in Chicago, Ill., in 2016. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters)

Workers at Target stores are struggling to pay their bills after the company cut the total amount of employee working hours in preparation for raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, according to a report from CNN.

“I got that dollar raise but I’m getting $200 less in my paycheck,” said Heather, who works at a Florida branch. She began working 40 hours per week but is now offered less than 20.

“I have no idea how I’m going to pay rent or buy food,” she continued.

Target committed to raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 in a statement on September 25, 2017.

Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) has made the $15 minimum wage a tenet of his campaign. He has blasted large companies such as McDonald’s and Walmart for refusing to pay their employees $15 per hour.

Last year was Target’s best business year since 2005. Sales were up five percent and company stocks were up four percent since 2017, prompting Target CEO Brian Cornell to laud the company’s “successful, durable model.”

Meanwhile, cuts in worker hours have affected