Pay for retail employees at 15-year high

Due to a tight labor market, retail employees are experiencing better pay than retail workers from the previous generation.

According to a Bloomberg article, minimum wage increases by states and across major chains, such as Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc. and Minneapolis-based Target Corp., coupled with a tight labor market, have jump-started the income gains. The average hourly earnings for 13.4 million non-supervisory retail workers surged 5.1% last year for the biggest advance since 1981 and now most recently reached $16.65 an hour in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported by Bloomberg. When adjusted for inflation, that’s the highest level since December 2003.

However, despite the increasingly better pay for retail workers, there are still fewer of them. According to Bloomberg, while retail associates have made recent gains, they still earn much less than hourly workers in many other sectors. Retail employees are now making 29% less than the average for all non-supervisory employees, just a marginal improvement from 30% a decade ago.

To read the Bloomberg article, click here.