Retail giant Target has announced a bevy of new plans including a permanent increase of its starting minimum wage to $15 an hour.

According to Yahoo Finance, the $2 raise will affect 275,000 employees across the U.S. The retail superstore’s minimum wage is now 25% higher than the U.S. industry average.

“In the best of times, our team brings incredible energy and empathy to our work, and in harder times they bring those qualities plus extraordinary resilience and agility to keep Target on the forefront of meeting the changing needs of our guests and our business year after year,” Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target said in a release.

“Everything we aspire to do and be as a company builds on the central role our team members play in our strategy, their dedication to our purpose, and the connection they create with our guests and communities.”

The $15 minimum was a promise Target made in 2017 to raise its starting rate to $15 an hour by the end of 2020. Last June, Target raised its minimum wage to $13 to honor the commitment.

Cornell also announced Target will give a one-time recognition bonus of $200 to its frontline store workers and distribution center hourly workers for their efforts working through the coronavirus pandemic. The superstore will also help employees stay healthy in the future by offering free access to virtual doctor visits for all team members through the end of the year, regardless of whether they currently subscribe to a Target healthcare plan.

Target also announced additional extensions of a 30-day paid leave for vulnerable team members, as well as free backup care for family members.

“The most important investments we make are in our team. I have tremendous gratitude for the way our team members show up with such purpose and pride for our guests, communities and one another,” said Melissa Kremer, Target’s chief human resources officer said in a statement.

“These investments help ensure that team members can build meaningful careers, take care of themselves and their families and contribute to building our communities through their work inside and outside of Target.”

Earlier in the year, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the majority of the country into their homes, Target raised its wage for new employees. Target also made a $10 million commitment to social justice causes earlier this month.

• Technology

by Derek Major

June 18, 2020

Apple’s Siri Shortcut Automatically Opens Your Camera And Records Police

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Filming the police has become an essential tool for exposing harassment and racism by cops. Apple has made it easier to capture these moments.

According to Mic, Apple developer Robert Petersen has created the “I’m getting pulled over” Siri shortcut. The shortcut, free through Apple’s Shortcuts app, allows users to automate a sequence of actions that can be activated with a single tap or command.

Saying “I’m getting pulled over” will pause audio the user is listening to, turn down the brightness and volume on the phone, puts the iPhone in Do Not Disturb mode, and sends a text to a contact of their choosing, letting them know the user is being pulled over along with their location. The front facing camera then begins recording the encounter. Once filming stops, the video can be sent to an iCloud Drive or Dropbox account.

Petersen first published the shortcut in 2018 and has maintained and added new features since. In order to install the shortcut, a user has to first run any shortcut, before being able to allow any third-party shortcuts. Once the device is set up to run shortcuts that the user didn’t create, they can download the “I’m getting pulled over” shortcut.

Once installed, users will be able see the full sequence of events that will occur when it’s activated. Users will also be prompted to provide a contact who will be notified of the user’s location if pulled over and will receive a copy of the video from the interaction. Multiple contacts can be selected for both options.

Apple joined IBM and Amazon last week in banning the use of its facial recognition software by law enforcement. The tech giant also launched a $100 million racial justice initiative to promote racial equality and will launch a camp for black developers and entrepreneurs in addition to increasing its recruitment efforts at HBCUs.

PepsiCo Inc., one of the world’s largest beverage and food companies, plans to invest more than $400 million during the next five years to uplift Black communities across America.

The commitment is part of many initiatives by PepsiCo that includes efforts to battle racial inequality and create opportunities for Black Americans. For instance, the company plans to expand its Black managerial roles by 30% by 2025 via internal development and recruitment. The Purchase, New York-based soda conglomerate plans to add more than 250 Black associates to managerial roles in the next five years, including adding at least 100 Black associates to its executive ranks.

Another PepsiCo initiative: Invest $50 million over five years to strengthen local Black-owned businesses.

In a letter Tuesday, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta talked about the company’s position on racial equality. He mentioned how the company has been thinking hard how it “can help dismantle the systemic racial barriers that for generations have blocked social and economic progress for Black people in this country. We know that the first step toward change is to speak up, so I want to be very clear: Black Lives Matter, to our company and to me.”

The company says its initiatives are part of a holistic effort to help address the need for systemic change.

Here are some other initiatives that PepsiCo plans to launch:

• Investing in accelerating PepsiCo’s support for social programs that impact Black communities. That includes backing Black-owned restaurants as part of its Small Businesses Program and launching a Community Leader Fellowship program for Black nonprofit CEOs.
• Accelerating its recruitment efforts with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and increasing partnerships with diversity organizations in core schools.
• Establishing scholarship support worth $25 million for students transitioning from 2-year to 4-year programs and scaling existing efforts to support trade/certificate and academic 2-year degrees through community colleges for 400 Black students per year. The funding will provide wrap-around support, including cash for books, transportation, and housing.
• Buying extra goods and services from diverse vendors. PepsiCo specifically says it will more than double its spending with Black-owned suppliers with an incremental spend of $350 million. The company plans to expand its supplier pipeline through advocacy and outreach. It will build supplier capability targeting growth across services, including agriculture, sustainable packaging, and operations.
• Supporting Black-owned restaurants as part of its Small Businesses Program, including mentoring, management training, and help obtaining financing.
• Investing $5 million to launch a Community Leader Fellowship program for Black nonprofit CEOs. The company says it will provide grants to participants’ organizations, executive education, and connections to PepsiCo leaders and partners.
• Using PepsiCo’s buying power to create more jobs for Black creators at its marketing agencies. The company will make them part of its content development. It calls for applying a Creative Agency Diversity Policy modeled on PepsiCo’s existing policy for the selection of legal services, including an annual audit.