MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Target has plans to raise the wages of workers across-the-board to a minimum of $9 an hour starting in April. This decision comes on the tails of similar moves from stores such as Wal-Mart, signaling that competition for lower wage workers is tightening.

As we’ve previously reported, Wal-Mart said last month it would raise the minimum wage for all hourly workers to at least $9 an hour starting in April and then again increase to $10 an hour in 2016. Retail wages have reportedly been growing faster than most sectors, according to The Wall Street Journal. A report from the U.S. Labor Department has identified that this year’s average retail hourly wage of $17.33 was up 2.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with overall wage growth of 2 percent during that same period. 

“Our goal is to always be competitive with the marketplace,” Target's Vice President of Communications, Dustee Jenkins, said Wednesday.

While the company has not officially announced the increase, Target store managers have been telling workers about the wage increase, according to The Wall Street Journal.

John Mulligan, Chief Financial Officer for Target, recently told analysts that it was "not reasonable" to impose a national minimum rate. Paying a minimum of $9 an hour in New York City or North Dakota would not attract workers in a tightening market, according to Reuters.

"Fixating on some single number to us, on an average number is unimportant. It's about being competitive locally at a store level within a marketplace. That is important, and we're going to be competitive," he said.

There are approximately 347,000 Target workers and 1,800 Target stores in the United States. The company had previously said that it already pays its workers higher than the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage in all its stores, but Jenkins declined to say how many workers make less than the proposed $9 an hour.

Target