Denim for sale at a Gap store in San Francisco in 2012.
The clothing retailer Gap announced Wednesday it will hike the minimum wage it pays its employees in the U.S. to $9 an hour in 2014 and $10 an hour in 2015.
“To us, this is not a political issue,” Gap Inc. CEO Glenn Murphy said in a written statement. “Our decision to invest in frontline employees will directly support our business, and is one that we expect to deliver a return many times over.”
Roughly 65,000 Gap employees will be affected by the move. According to Gap, most of the company’s employees already make above the U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25.