Starting hourly salary gets a boost at two midstate supermarket chains

(Harrisburg) — Workers at two midstate supermarket chains will soon be making more money, but both companies say the change won’t cost shoppers anything extra.

Giant Food Stores and Martin’s Food Markets was first to announce its raising workers’ pay to at least $9 an hour, back on April 14th.

The raises go into effect in June.

John MacDonald is director of marketing at the chain, and says it may actually save money overall.

“A lot less expensive than have to constantly retrain and to constantly turn over your associates. And wage is just one of those ways that we try to retain our associates,” says MacDonald.

MacDonald says this won’t mean higher prices, and Weis Markets echoes that thought.

“These kind of efforts aren’t really tied to prices at the stores. These efforts are seperate, because their seperate considerations that we have. Again, how do we pay our associates and how do we compensation our associates, it has no effect on the prices that you’re going to see at the store.”

It’s moving its starting hourly rate up to $9 per hour, too, but not until August 2nd.

Weis declined to speak to WITF on tape.

But in a statement, it says employee satisfaction is a big reason for the decision.

National retailers like Walmart, Target, and the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s and Home Goods have all recently raised the starting pay for workers to at least $9 an hour.