Target employee here. While I'm happy for the pay increase, I just hope this incentivizes management to fire bad employees. I'm on the flow team (truck unload followed by stocking), and a third of the team could be fired tomorrow and I wouldn't even notice. The only shitty part about the pay increase is anyone making under $11.00/hour loses any yearly pay increases they have received in the past. So my coworkers who started last month will be making the same amount as I am even though I've been there over a year. I'm not too disgruntled about it, but I'm am mildly annoyed. Also, fuck investors.
So... as an employee, I am curious about how much you care what others are getting paid, vs whether you are getting a living wage, or not...? Are you happy to get a raise? Are you happy that your coworkers are going to have it easier now? Does it really matter what someone is making in contrast to your pay level? A credit card processor here in Seattle tried flattening their pay scale - everyone gets $70k/year - and the results were interesting. But this was a couple years ago. Culture is changing quickly. I'm interested to see how you weigh your value against your coworkers...? It seems that seniority would not significantly improve someone's skills, when working in a "flow" job at Target. Yeah, some people pick up on things faster than others, but after a few months, isn't everyone pretty much equally skilled at the tasks involved in the "flow"? (BTW - I love the idea of the "flow" group... moving stuff from trucks, into the store, in a flow... that's a cool concept.)
I don't care that much about pay differences on the team. It's only mildly annoying to me because a third of the team doesn't really do much. If seeing them get a pay bump means I get a pay bump as well (even if it's smaller) so be it. But yes, I'm happy to see all my coworkers getting a pay increase as well (I'm not that much of an asshole). Some of them have families they're supporting and quite a few (myself included) are college students who need all the money we can get. As for how I value myself against my coworkers, I guess it comes down to how management treats me. I'm part-time, but I routinely get 35-40 hours per week. Only 2-3 others on flow get those kind of hours. When shit hits the fan, we're the people management asks to stay past our scheduled time and help (or come in on our days off). Management has a limited number of hours to give out each month, they give them to those of us who are reliable, hard workers. As you say, it doesn't take long to learn the skills that flow requires, but the one thing no company can train you for is a work ethic. As I told my boss, I'm not there to have fun or enjoy myself, I'm there to earn a paycheck. I stay focused, keep the chit chat to a minimum, and work as fast as I can. It's not that a third of the team doesn't know the skills, it's that they get distracted, begin talking with one another, or smoke weed while on their break.
I’ve read a similar thing about how walmart could potentially pay all they minimum wage employees 12$ if they only increased their prices by 1 cent on the dollar (or something like that, don’t remember the specifics). And what that didn’t take into account was all the pay raises and insatisfaction upstream of the manager that is paid 12.50. Or the dude that worked his way up to 11$. Or the guy in the office with a bachelor that started at 13$. I mean, I guess good for target. They might just fire those 1/3 peeps that you could do without to calm down the investors. And then you’ll be at the same place you were before, but with more work... yeah fuck investors