The Home Depot said Tuesday it’s investing $1 billion in wage increases for its U.S. and Canadian hourly workers.
The Atlanta-based home improvement chain said every hourly employee will get a raise starting this month. Starting pay will be at least $15 per hour in all markets.
In the Chattanooga area, The Home Depot employs several hundred full- and part-time employees at its stores in East Brainerd, Hixson, Fort Oglethorpe, Cleveland, Tennessee, and Dalton, Georgia. The company is also preparing to add a 60,800-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in the new North River Commerce Park.
The Home Depot is one of many big retailers that have raised pay to attract workers in a strong U.S. job market, where unemployment is at its lowest level since 1969. Walmart announced in January it would raise its hourly wage to an average of $17.50, while Target invested $300 million in hourly wage increases last year.
The pay raises could also help The Home Depot head off a fledgling campaign to unionize its stores, which it opposes. Workers at The Home Depot in Philadelphia filed to hold a union election last September, saying workers weren’t benefiting from the company’s strong sales and stores were understaffed. Workers at the store voted to reject the union in November.