Target offers employees extra $2 an hour for peak days of holiday season

Target said Tuesday that it will pay $2 an hour more to employees who pick up shifts during peak days of the holiday season.

The extra pay will go to store employees and service center employees who work on Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 20 to Dec. 19, on Christmas Eve or on the day after Christmas. Select headquarters employees also qualify, Target said in the announcement on its website.

Hourly supply chain employees can get the additional pay for peak two-week periods between Oct. 10 and Dec. 18, a crucial time for moving goods to shelves and packing boxes. The specific timing will depend on where the employees work.

Target’s minimum wage is $15 an hour. The company is sweetening the deal and offering even higher pay for holiday workers as many retailers struggle to fill jobs and focus on retaining employees. Korn Ferry, a talent consulting firm, polled 176 U.S. retailers in September to see if the companies were having trouble hiring, and only 2% responded that it wasn’t an issue.

Target said last month that it would scale back on seasonal hiring and instead give more hours to its roughly 300,000 current store employees. It also launched an app that allows workers to pick up an extra shift on demand, if they prefer a more flexible schedule that they can juggle with child care or college classes.