There’s a reason so many guests call Target their “happy place”—and it starts with our nearly 350,000 team members who come together every day to deliver those amazing shopping experiences guests love. So taking good care of our team members is a top priority.
A few ways we do it? By providing meaningful and interesting work, as well as career growth and development opportunities. We also understand the importance of providing equitable experiences, inclusive of pay, based on their experience, expertise and position. (We even signed the Equal Pay Pledge two years ago to keep making progress.) It’s not just a goal or policy; it’s about living out our company values and treating all team members fairly.
Here’s something we’re especially proud of: Our latest pay audit of U.S. team members confirmed that, taking into account relevant factors such as position, tenure and location, Target pays team members equitably, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity.
Our work on ensuring pay equity goes back nearly a decade and we are proud to share the results from our latest audit—and we’re committed to the ongoing effort across hiring, promotion, pay and all our talent practices required to achieve these consistent results.
We asked Stephanie Lundquist, Target’s chief human resources officer (pictured below), to tell us more. 
Providing equitable pay is a big achievement. How did Target do it?
It’s a big job that’s taken conscious effort, including lots of routines we go through regularly with the team. For example, we provide training and tools to the people responsible for hiring and compensation decisions to reduce the risk of bias—whether that’s conscious or unconscious—affecting decision making.
We’ve gotten rid of questions about prior salary from most external hiring situations so that we don’t perpetuate previous pay gaps for qualified job candidates. And we regularly conduct comprehensive pay audits to make sure that pay is fair and equitable across the team. That’s in addition to the overarching work we do to make sure every team member is treated fairly across all dimensions of difference.
How does Target calculate or define pay equity?
Our audit process follows leading industry standards, and we’ve worked with experts in statistics and employment law to design and manage it. In general, we analyze pay by grouping individuals together using objective factors including level, experience, job type, and market, among others and then look for and address any unintended pay gaps among these smaller groups.
What does this mean for Target moving forward?
We are proud that the collective work we are doing is resulting in equitable pay and we are committed to the ongoing efforts needed to keep it up. Target’s commitment to equitable experiences is longstanding, so we will continue to work to ensure all of our talent practices mitigate bias and provide equitable outcomes.
Big picture, how does this work support Target’s strategy?
We have a broad spectrum of guests across the country, and depending on who they are, where they live, and so many other factors, they look to Target for many different kinds of products and experiences.
Our teams are out there every day running our stores and facilities, selling our products and interacting with guests. It’s so important that our team member population reflects the diversity of our guests so they can share their insights on important business decisions and make every interaction and solution more relevant.
Simply put, a diverse and inclusive team is a better team, so when we build our teams through equitable treatment, including equitable pay, we ultimately build a better Target.
Why is it important to you that Target makes these kind of commitments?
Every person wants to know they are being compensated fairly and that the experiences provided to them are equitable. Our full team at Target is committed to the hard work required to create that culture and make that a reality, and that gives me a real sense of pride, and I know it is essential to our long-term success.
Learn more about all the ways Target takes care of its team members.
