In the COVID driven economy, labor shortages are rampant. Workers at Walmart are getting a raise. The giant retailer is one of the largest employer in the United States and now more than 565,000 employees will be earning at least few dollars more than before by the end of the month.
Last month, Walmart, which is the largest private employer in America, reported its second quarter revenue and sales results. It was better than the forecast by Wall Street analysts. The quarterly revenue stood at $141 billion, and the comp-store sales rose 5.2 percent.
According to an internal memo obtained by various news agencies U.S. CEO John Furner wrote that associates in the Frontend, Food & Consumable and General Merchandise Work Groups would receive an at least $1 raise per hour. These divisions have a combined total of over 565,000 store associates. He also mentioned that it was the third time that Walmart was investing in wages for its store associates in the past year.
Furner said that they had raised pay for approximately 1.2 million hourly associates in their U.S. stores. He also said that the average hourly wage at Walmart for U.S. store associates was $16.40 after the latest increase in wages. He noted that the retail giant’s current average pay for associates was $15.25.
He said that entry-level associates take about seven months to reach positions with higher pay and more responsibilities. He also noted that possibilities continued to rise at the retail giant. He mentioned that about three quarters of their U.S. salaried store, club and supply chain management teams began their careers in an hourly role at Walmart.
Walmart workers’ pay are ahead of several other retailers. Many companies including CVS have raised the pay rate to $15 per hour as envisaged by President Joe Biden and the Democrats. They have been trying to push legislation making a $15 minimum hour wage compulsory throughout the nation, but this has been stalled mainly by Republican senators. Food cost and other costs have been rising and a minimum federally mandated wage of $15 per hour is the need of the hour.
