Target Workers Face Rising Pay Fairness Questions Amid CEO Pay Debate

A Target team member trying to decide whether the next raise will keep up with rent is looking at the same question now shaping the broader May Day pay debate: who is getting ahead, and who is falling behind. The International Trade Union Confederation used its May Day message to argue that real worker pay fell sharply from 2019 to 2025 while real CEO pay surged, including pay packages above $100 million for at least four corporate chiefs last year. That global argument lands inside Target stores because it pushes a very practical question to the front of the line: whether hourly workers can understand the wage range, the path to raises and the difference between a paycheck and a real compensation package.

Target says most of its pay and benefits offerings are available on day one, and its April 13 fact sheet puts the starting wage range for U.S. hourly team members in stores and supply chain facilities at $15 to $24 an hour. The company also says its average hourly wage for frontline team members is above $18.50. For a workforce of about 440,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal team members as of February 1, 2025, those numbers matter far beyond one store or one season. Target has spent years tying pay to its care, grow, win together culture, along with a 10% team-member discount that reached its 50th anniversary in 2025 and wellness-product discounts that have generated more than $98 million in savings since 2015.

The fairness question gets sharper when set beside the top of the org chart. WWD reported that former CEO Brian Cornell’s 2025 compensation package was valued at $21.8 million, including salary, incentive pay, bonus and stock awards, while Michael Fiddelke’s 2025 package was valued at $9.6 million. Target’s 2026 proxy materials show the board separated the chair and CEO roles effective February 1, 2026, with Fiddelke becoming CEO and Cornell moving to executive chairman. The company’s annual meeting is scheduled for June 10, 2026, with shareholders also set to consider two new independent directors, Stephen Bratspies and John Hoke III.

That backdrop helps explain why pay conversations inside Target are not just about hourly rates. Mercer said in December 2025 that more than 1,000 U.S. employers were planning average 2026 merit increases of 3.2 percent and total increases of 3.5 percent, flat with 2025, while retail was tracking below average. In practice, that means Target team leads and ETLs are being asked to explain more than a wage line on a posting. They have to show how pay, hours, scheduling, benefits and growth line up with the work on the floor, because workers will judge fairness by the full experience, not by the headline number alone.