Target employee Kaitlin Sondae seems to have hit a nerve with other workers for the global chain after posting a video questioning how workers with children are able to afford to provide for their families after receiving marginally small incremental raises on their hourly salaries at the retailer.
In the clip, Sondae (@kaitlinsondae) centers her face on the camera, and she looks from right to left over a TikTok sound where someone says, “Yeah no actually I have four kids,” while another voice chimes in and says, “Damn!”
She wrote in the text overlay for the clip: “Truly wondering how some people can afford kids working at Target with our .30 cent average for a raise.”
@kaitlinsondae Love it #gottaloveit #targetemployee #targetworker #kids ♬ original sound – uglywhitty
Target has come under fire previously for its annual raises. While Sondae herself shared earlier in April that she got a 31-cent bump after being with the company for five years, another employee claimed they only received a 9-cent raise. And a commenter on Sondae’s latest video claimed their raise was only 8 cents.
The chain has come under fire for these raises, with some employees calling Target’s promise of a $24 per hour base hourly rate a “scam.”
The U.S. economy has reportedly seen its worst rates of inflation in the past 40 years in 2022, with many projecting that the cost of living for products like food to increase even more into 2023. While there are predictions the housing market will “crash” in 2023 and bring property values down from their astronomical COVID spikes, as of this writing, it is reportedly still more difficult for Americans to own a home now than it was during the Great Depression.
Sonade’s reference to childcare costs in her post are a cause of concern for many American families as well, with average out-of-pocket annual costs for families ranging in the tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the state that one lives in. According to World Population Review, the DC area leads the pack with a whopping $24,243 average in childcare costs families are expected to fork over in the region.
Massachussetts doesn’t trail far behind with its $20,913 annual average cost. The third highest is California, with a near $17,000 yearly premium parents must fork over for childcare.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sondae and Target via email.
