At Home comfortable with wage increase

The ripple effects of Walmart’s wage action have extended to Plano, Tex., where home décor retailer At Home has upped the minimum wage ante with a more generous pay plan for hourly workers.

At Home, the company formerly known as Garden Ridge, operates 83 stores in 22 states. Beginning in May, the company said it would pay full-time hourly employees a minimum of $10 an hour and the minimum hourly rate for part-timers will increase to $9 an hour.

"Attracting and retaining great team members has and continues to be a key priority for us," said At Home CEO Lee Bird. "We recognize that our success as a company to date and going forward is strongly tied to our talented team and their ability to deliver a great customer experience within our stores. In our mission to become an employer of choice, this wage increase is one way for us to illustrate our commitment to our front-line employees and recognize the important role they play in driving our success."

The move by At Home follows a major wage-related announcement Walmart made in late February in conjunction with the release of its fourth quarter results. Walmart said by April it would increase its minimum hourly pay rate to $9 an hour and raise it to $10 the following year. A week after Walmart’s announcement, TJX Companies said it planned a similar move.

For At Home, the wage increase is the latest move in an ongoing transformation begun by Bird when he arrived at the company in December 2012. Last year, the company embarked on a brand transformation that included adopting the new At Home brand identity after operating under the Garden Ridge name since being founded in 1979 in the San Antonio suburb of Garden Ridge. The company describes its large format stores, some of which exceed 100,000 square feet, as providing customers with the greatest assortment of home decor products for every room and every style at everyday low prices.

Bird previously served as managing director of the private equity firm The Gores Group. Prior to that he was president of Nike Affiliates for Nike Inc., served as COO of Gap, Inc., and CFO of Gap’s Old Navy division. Bird also held senior financial and strategy positions at Gateway, Allied Signal, Ford Motor Company and BayBanks.