Target's Largest Settlement Of 2025 Was Costly
About 13,700 people who worked distribution in New Jersey may soon get checks in the mail as part of a $4.6-million settlement with retail giant Target, which never paid them for their time.
The settlement for the class action lawsuit, which Target has agreed to without admitting wrongdoing, is scheduled for final approval at the federal courthouse in Camden, New Jersey on Feb. 24. Once approved, the main plaintiff, Krystal Sadler, will likely receive $10,000. Sadler's attorneys from the firm of McOmber McOmber & Luber estimate attorney fees and expenses at just over $1.53 million. The remainder of the payout, about $2.75 million, will go to a settlement fund for former employees who labored at Target distribution centers in Burlington, Perth Amboy, and Logan Township since August of 2019.
In much the same way customers eligible for Amazon Prime's $2.5 billion settlement do not have to do anything to receive their payments, eligible current and former Target employees will be automatically sent checks unless they send a request for exclusion to the settlement by Feb.13, per NJDistributionCentersettlement.com.
Workers say they should be paid for time spent traveling to their work stations
Sadler, who worked at Target's Logan Township facility for two months, filed suit in November 2022, charging that the Minneapolis-based retail chain did not pay for time spent being screened by security when entering and leaving the premises, nor the amount of time it took to walk to their departments, Sourcing Journal reported.
Target's facility in Logan Township is a big place, measuring in at 1.1 million-square-foot building, per the Philadelphia Business Journal. The Perth Amboy facility is more than 900,000 square feet, according to TheFutureWarehouse.com
A similar lawsuit filed by Target distribution workers Jeanna Kratzert and Neil Mosher in August 2025 claimed that the amount of time it takes to walk to a workstation amounts to up to $2,000 a year in unpaid wages for an employee, per Sourcing Journal. Kratzert used to work in a 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse in Wilton, New York while Neil Mosher still labors at that facility. A third employee who works in a 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse in Amsterdam, New York filed a concurrent suit with nearly identical allegations in September 2025.
Target deals with a dip in sales amid leadership change and suits
The $4.6-million settlement comes at a time when Target is still being adversely impacted by punishing tariffs while at the same time, the company's sales are dropping. To reverse these trends, Target invested $1 billion to improve its operations and brick-and-more stores, a move that includes the use of artificial intelligence to create simulated consumer audiences as well as merchandise development, per Retail Dive.
Target will also be undergoing a leadership change. Amid dropping sales, Target's chief executive officer for the past decade, Brian Cornell, will resign his CEO post at the start of February. Cornell's incoming replacement, COO Michael Fiddelke, announced in October that Target was laying off 1,000 corporate employees and eliminate 800 open company jobs, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported. Much like Nestle's plan to cut 16,000 jobs, Target's move to eliminate 8% of the employees in its Minneapolis headquarters is aimed at helping the company grow as Target strives to be more efficient, Fiddelke stated in a memo, per the Business Journal.