The Gap Plans to Raise Minimum Wage for Workers to $10 Per Hour

The Gap announced plans to raise its hourly minimum wage to $10, a move that is expected to impact more than 65,000 of its employees.

Gap, Inc owns several companies, including Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Piperlime. The move is incremental; current minimum wage employees will start to make $9 per hour by June of his year and $10 per hour by June of 2015, according to a report from Think Progress:

In a release, the company argues that
increasing the minimum wage will help retain “attract and retain great
talent” and improve customers’ experience. While many retailers claim that they cannot afford to pay the minimum
wage without firing employees or raising prices, research shows that
companies paying low wages stand to benefit
from the huge stimulus a wage hike would bring to poor workers who
spend most of their income on basic needs like food and clothing. Even
Walmart, one of the most notoriously low-paying companies, announced
Wednesday it would consider
supporting a minimum wage hike, acknowledging that it would generate
extra pocket money for Walmart’s typically low-income customers.
Additionally, employees tend to work harder and stay at their company longer after their wages increase.

The news, according to the Associated Press, was especially well-received by one person in particular:

President Barack Obama applauded the move by Gap, noting that in his
State of the Union address last month, he had asked businesses to do
what they can to raise wages. Obama has also signed an executive order
raising the minimum wage for workers covered by new federal contracts to
$10.10.

“To us, this is not a political issue,” GAP Chairman and CEO Glenn
Murphy said. “Our decision to invest in frontline employees will
directly support our business, and is one that we expect to deliver a
return many times over.” The move follows a report from the Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday that suggested raising the minimum wage in the U.S. could raise at least one million people out of poverty.

But! (There’s always a “but.”) The company still has some work to do on the international front, notes Think Progress:

Paying American employees a higher wage is a good first step for GAP, but the company still has a long way to go to align its social responsibility mission with its actual labor practices — particularly for its foreign workers. The company has refused to sign on to a legally binding plan
to improve contracted Bangladeshi garment factories after multiple
deadly disasters, instead offering a watered down, self-regulated plan.
Its lax auditing of its supply chain also led to revelations in 2007
that GAP was inadvertently subcontracting child labor in India.