NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Target (TGT) - Get Report shares are down 0.63% to $80.55 in market trading on Thursday after Target announced plans to raise its employee minimum wage to $9 an hour, following the lead of fellow retailer Walmart (WMT) - Get Report, as worker advocates continue to push for a "living wage" in the fast food and retail industries.

The move is seemingly a reversal from the company's stance a month ago when CFO John Mulligan said, "Fixating on some single number to us, or an average number is unimportant. It's about being competitive locally at a store level within a marketplace. That is important, and we're going to be competitive."

Earlier this month Target announced that it would be cutting 1,700 jobs or 13% of its workforce, mostly at its corporate headquarters in Minnesota, as part of new CEO Brian Cornell's plan to save $500 million this year.

Separately, the company proposed to pay $10 million to settle the class action lawsuit that was brought against the company following the 2013 data breach that affected as many as 40 million credit and debit card accounts.

People affected by the breach will be eligible for damages up to $10,000 each, according to the proposal, with the funds for reimbursement being kept in an interest bearing escrow account. The settlement would also require the company to beef up its security measures by appointing a chief security officer.

A court hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for today.

TheStreet's Jim Cramer, Portfolio Manager of the Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio believes that the move to $9 an hour is a good one as shifting sands make raising the minimum wage necessary.

"We love target for actionalertsplus.com. It's good news not bad news that TGT is giving people raises because otherwise they will just go work at TJX or Walmart. I just bought a pair of slacks at TJX-not kidding-and was reminded that this is a company that could poach anyone from Target for that additional buck. It would be short-sighted not to pay. However, here's what matters: the bloated hierarchy at the top needs to be trimmed and that's what Cornell's doing. These people aren't on the floor selling and that's where the rubber hits the road. This is a very cheap stock and the company's making a lot of bold moves that are taking it in the right direction which is why it is such a big position for the trust," said Cramer today.

Yesterday Cramer blogged that,

"Everyone in large-box retail is compelled to follow Wal- Mart's lead, and Target is no exception. We believe the company is making the right move, and forecast the EPS impact to be minimal. Of course, we would need more information on the current number of employees (out of its 366,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal "team members") currently being paid minimum wage in order to make a more specific cost impact determination, but assuming it is a small portion (less than 1% of Wal- Mart's employees were being paid minimum wage), the cost impact should be under $10 million annually.

"Of course, if the number of minimum-wage employees is high (10% or above), the cost impact would well exceed $50 million annually, but we believe the likelihood of this scenario is low."

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates TARGET CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate TARGET CORP (TGT) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 83.95% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 29.78% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Turning to the future, naturally, any stock can fall in a major bear market. However, in almost any other environment, the stock should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed nice gains in the past year.
• TARGET CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, TARGET CORP increased its bottom line by earning $3.84 versus $3.07 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.55 versus $3.84).
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 2.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 1.1%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has increased to $2,389.00 million or 35.20% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of 24.96%.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: TGT Ratings Report