Giant Latest to Raise Minimum Wage for Workers

Giant Food Stores has become the latest retail chain to announce an increase in the minimum wage for its employees, joining national brands such as Wal-Mart, Target and McDonald’s.

A starting associate wage at one of the 197 Giant Food Stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia will begin at $9 per hour as of June 2015. Current associates earning the minimum wage rate will also see an increase to $9 an hour in June. A Giant Supermarket is located on Nutt Road in Phoenixville.

“We believe that this is the right thing to do,” said Tom Lenkevich, president of Giant/Martin’s Food Stores. “Our goal is to continue to be an employer of choice by offering a competitive total compensation package.”

Approximately 10,000 part-time associates, or one-third of its 33,000 employee work force, will be impacted by this wage increase, the company says.

The minimum wage debate has taken center stage in the last year, following high-profile protests from low-income workers from the fast food and retail industries. The current federal minimum wage is set at $7.25, but national companies like Wal-Mart and TJ Maxx have implemented plans to raise their rates to $9 this year and again to $10 in 2016, according to CNN.

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage matches the federal rate, but moves have been made in Harrisburg to enact an increase. Governor Tom Wolf expressed his support for a bill introduced by State Rep. Patty Kim (D-103) that would raise the wage to $10.10 by 2016, according to the Morning Call. House Bill 250 is currently under review in the House Policy Committee.

Kim says in a statement that the legislation would increase the take-home pay for hourly workers by more than $5,000, earning $21,000 a year. According to watchdog.org, however, a study from the Congressional Budget Office says that a national minimum wage increase to $10.10 would cause the loss of an estimated half-a-million jobs.