Walmart boosts wages and employee perks

ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) announced on Tuesday that it is raising the minimum wage for store employees to $14 per hour in March.

The retail giant said the higher wage structure will include a mixture of associates’ regular annual increases and targeted investments in starting rates for thousands of stores to ensure it features attractive pay in the markets of operation.

Walmart (WMT) expect the raises will bring the U.S. average hourly wage to more than $17.50.

In addition, Walmart (WMT) said it will also continue to invest in associates who run the Auto Care Centers by introducing a higher-paying ACC team lead position and elevating the ACC tech position to a higher pay-band that reflects the special skills needed for the role and its importance to the business.

Other perks include Walmart (WMT) adding new college degrees and certificates to the Live Better U education program and expanding the Associate-to-Driver Program, which pays for supply chain associates to earn their commercial driver's license and become a Walmart truck driver earning up to $110K in their first year.

Shares of Walmart (WMT) fell 0.12% in mid-day trading on Tuesday.

Comments

[UK Lawman]

In isolation, $14-17.50 ph means little, particularly to a non-American. It would help to say “raised from $x ph by y%”. With the fiscal drag of marginal income etc taxes it would be less net take home pay.

Robots etc may help reduce labour costs. The eventual outcome would be less demand for labour: something that - it is reported - is not so now.

As investors we come back to the need for stock selection. In the UK I avoid high street retail. Possibly Tesco (well run financially and for staff) is an exception. Illustration of price rises: 6 tins of dog food $7-40 in my small town store. $11+ in Sainsbury. Peter Lynch style view: Revenues will fall.

[jimoc]

@UK Lawman, how common is shoplifting (theft) in the UK?
and if caught, any punishment there?

[UK Lawman]

@jimoc Thanks. Indirectly relevant to Investors as thefts are 100% loss of that part of Cost of Goods sold. I do not have figures, but shop lifting aka theft from retail shops is significant. Possible increase due to inflation of food etc 15% pa.

Long term it continues due to the very poor Criminal Justice administration in the UK: in c. 2011 HMG cut funding of courts dramatically, and since then they struggle despite goodwill of magistrates and court staff. It is a scandal but nothing will change until after late 2024 election with change of government; and even then it will take years.

There are no votes for Criminal Justice - unless you are a falsely accused, a victim, a witness, a criminal lawyer, etc.

[Billybobp]

WMT is ahead of the curve with driverless trucks and self checkout,

[jimoc]

@Billybobp, have been to both Sama & Costco lately. Sams was awful. People all standing back at Sams because the machines are too close together, help is untrained as well. And then Sams food court, awful too.

[Winnertakesall]

That's a huge red flag sell. In fact I wouldn't touch any retail store, all of them are going to see margins evaporate.

[Insouciant Investor]

WMT is getting killed by inflation. These wage raises are unsustainable. They need to start implementing robots asap!

[ChuRaphPeyt5638]

I have been working at Sam’s for 8 years now. All through the pandemic we were expected to work hard to keep everybody’s pantry’s, refrigerators, toiletries, and basic needs fulfilled . When all the young and part time associates left for gov. Freebies we stayed for fear of losing our benefits. Now a new hire tomorrow will make the same pay as us and then quit a month later. We had to work with skeleton crews all through Covid and were expected to get the jobs done that we did with 3 times the amount of workers. My point is they don’t take care of the people who kept everything going for everybody when the times were tough. Now they will throw as much or more cash and benefits at a new hire and expect less from them. Members quality of service doesn’t get better with highly paid short term workers and low paid long time workers. That is just my opinion and I think Walmart and it’s shoppers should keep that in mind. Raise the pay of long time hard workers not people who come just to be another body wearing a Walmart vest. 8 years for $15 an hour. We will have to leave for better pay eventually and all that will be left is the entitled employees who come and go as they please.

[Mountain_man]

@ChuRaphPeyt5638 no different than anywhere else. My gf is a teacher, new hires make the same as her and she’s been doing it 10 yrs. I work in software, new engineers commonly start at a rate higher than people who’ve been here 3-4yrs. Mobility has been good to me in my career…if you don’t feel like the company is taking care of you, move on, but the grass is not always greener :)

[Spiritowner]

@ChuRaphPeyt5638 maybe we were getting paid too much to begin with?…. Which caused all the inflation? Let’s lol in the mirror! These newbies will be doing the same as us in 10 years!

[jimoc]

@ChuRaphPeyt5638, sounds like a union. No need to try, all get the same.

[Fieldtech49]

All large employers should be giving raises now and the government should do another round of stimulus checks too! That is exactly what this economy needs to reign in the worst inflation in 50 years...

[jimoc]

@Fieldtech49 more handouts?

[Spiritowner]

@Fieldtech49 hilarious, there are economic courses online that helped me understand why we have inflation!

[Fieldtech49]

@jimoc This was sarcasm...

[GR Value]

"Average hourly wage of $17.50" seems to still indicate it pays below $15 for many workers. This means it's probably going to have to go higher as you can't survive in the US with under $20.

[Coalfan]

@GR Value truly a math genius 🙄

[SUE2]

We cannot fight change. It does not mean we will like it. Increased labor costs.
Either volume per worker must go up or prices must go up. I expect we will see both. More self service, fewer employees per sale. Our Walmart for a while had a robot you could ask questions of it is no longer there. Did they fire it? Far as Walmart, no shortage of videos of strange customers talking to themselves, the walls, why not a robot. That could be mistaken as normal.

[Term Limits For Parasites]

Good

Free market at work.

Want lower inflation quit voting for the 2 worthless parties that are largely responsible for it.

[OneMoreCup]

why $14 hr? most places already pay $15-17/hr now. traditionally, smaller retailers w/ high volume (Aldi's, Costco's) tend to pay 20% higher than Walmart as starting pay. let's face it, by end of 2023, $18-20 would likely be the minimum wage for most regions except the boonies....stagflation, here we come...

[SUE2]

@OneMoreCup We tend to speak, think that the dollar is a unit of measurement like an inch, a cup or metric centimeters. liters. The dollar is not that. It is a unit of exchange. How long do you need to work to buy???
a ruler perhaps. Minimum wage? Now 14 or whatever. I remember fifty cents. The gimmeeeeeee, you owe me current view. We were thrilled to find a job and to EARN a few bucks. Resume? Well I sat on my butt protesting getting out to RIOT etc. Who would hire you with that resume?
FAIR? Life is not fair. I did well. Reason, I grew up poor. For me I decided FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.

[User 31614085]

I try to avoid WalMart but I had my car battery replaced there last week and was very impressed with the service..glad to see the employees getting a pay boost.

[Illuminati Investments]

@MJL987 I had my car battery replaced there too, as it was stolen in the parking lot...

[DrewMcVay]

Bad news for basically everyone. Inflation spiraling at the lowest spectrum, which will be the most influential on prices for basic goods and services.

Inflation is sadly here to stay until we toughen up (not happening anytime soon), or have a really bad and nasty recession.

The consumer is still in an amazing place at the moment, credit card default rates at historic lows. Mortgage default rates historic lows. Auto defaults at historic lows. Lean on the consumer, put more pressure on them. Raise rates, and keep raising. QT followed by more QT. Raise taxes for ALL. Breach the debt ceiling, show some spine.

[Kevin Sloan]

@DrewMcVay Bad news that people will be paid 14 dollars an hour? I can promise you someone who makes 14 dollars an hour instead of 11.50 cannot afford to buy more things, they can be slightly be comfortable paying for their existing lifestyle, and by slightly i mean continuing to barely eeek by, but 10% more comfortably so. You sir are what's wrong with this country.

[trentbridge]

@DrewMcVay
Billionaire Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel surpassed rivals by earning a record $16 billion in profit for investors last year – the largest gain in history.

Yes, they produced nothing and made $16 billion. And you think $14/hr causes inflation?

[rando_on_the_internet]

@DrewMcVay I think you live in bizarro-world instead of reality. All the things normal people consider good (good wages, consumers healthy, low default rates, government paying bills on time) are things you consider bad.

If you really want to set the taxes and interest rates super high, pay tiny wages, expose your spinal cord, and refuse to pay debts, how about you create your own country instead of screwing up America?

[trentbridge]

Walmart increasing pay is a sign. They cannot get jobs filled.
This is why there is going to be no deep recession. Labor is in short supply and the Fed interest rate moves may depress business spending but the consumer is not over-extended and will keep the economy moving forward.

[Finding Your Retirement]

@trentbridge wait until march when the covid welfare ends.

[OneMoreCup]

@trentbridge Wall St is "sick"...this is the scenario we ought to maintain, workers make a decent wage, corps make a little less, inflation kept at a reasonable 4%, savers get a decent rate for savings w/o taking risk, stocks come down to historical norm (allowing new buyers a chance to participate on the next upswing based on fundamentals), bond market accepts new reality of higher rate to slow down all the zombies from growing (yes, no soup for you Zombie firms)...What is wrong w/ this picture, aside from the b#tches complaining about accepting a "lower bid" for their overpriced assets...

[HavingFunToday]

@trentbridge lot of people left the workforce with covid shutdowns never came back. I mean look at any retail or restaurant every of them have signs saying now hiring. Some fast food places I see are drive thur only still because they don't have staff for the inside.