Important Work on Pay and Scheduling

For several months, REI has been working to advance our existing market-leading retail pay and benefits offering even further. Today we shared information with all REI employees outlining the first in a series of investments.

Our CEO, Jerry Stritzke, first wrote about this work in a letter to employees in June. Today, REI senior vice president of retail Tim Spangler, outlined significant steps the co-op is making.

Highlights include:

• Effective August 21, 25% of REI stores will receive pay investments ranging from 5% to 15%. The majority of these stores will receive an average investment of 10%. Every employee in these markets will receive an increase and increases vary by employee.

• We are focusing first on urban areas where the rising cost of living has had a disproportionate impact: Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. These employees will still be eligible for raises in 2017 as part of our normal compensation cycle.

• These moves enhance an already-leading combination of pay and benefits in retail. By mid-2017, all REI employees will be paid clearly above the majority of retailers in their market.

As promised by our CEO in June, we will have another update in October that will deal specifically with scheduling. You can expect to hear more from us then on this topic.

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