While tech companies are laying off workers by the thousand, Walmart is trying to make sure its 1.6 million workers stick around. The company, America’s largest employer, says it is hiking its minimum wage from $12 to $14 for store employees, almost twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25, CNN reports. The company says the move will result in pay rises for 21% of its workforce, around 340,000 people. In a memo to employees Tuesday, Walmart US CEO John Furner said the average wage for hourly employees, which make up 94% of its workforce, will rise from $17 to $17.50 when the pay rises take effect in early March,
Analysts say that despite layoffs elsewhere and warning that a recession may be looming, there is still a lot of competition for lower-paid workers. The Walmart pay hike brings it closer to Amazon and Target, which have a $15 minimum wage. Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY Parthenon, tells CNBC that retail has a higher “churn rate” than many industries, meaning it would be easy for an employer like Walmart to reduce headcount by not filling vacancies. He says that after working hard to recruit and train workers over the last 18 months, retailers are wary of losing trained employees. “Any retailer is going to have to think carefully and think twice about laying off a good share of their workforce,” he says.
Walmart, China Inc. Yea this won’t last long.
The same thing happened in the telco after the “second line” fury and as the DSLs saturated the markets. Then there was the FIOS market that even the densest of us knew was the death knell of telephony.
Bell didn’t keep any good people. Once they killed the DS0/DS1 market we knew we were fucked and better take advantage of what we know.
Great.
Now people who can’t answer any questions are paid a litte more to avoid me like they always have.
In my neck of the woods, they speak Creole and a tiny bit of English if you’re lucky.
The gov’t still pays better for not working, but if you live in a small town with a low cost of living and want to work then Walmart is a great option.
Sounds like they are creating pay compression. Some of the longest serving employees will find themselves making just pennies more per hour than new hires. Not good for morale.
They should raise my wage as I do my own checkout. Actually, I’ve thought they should give a 5-10% discount for self checkout. How about that, Walmart?
Yea, not holding my breath.
Not Shown; Layoffs and hour cuts to balance the books.
Wash. state has Wally World beat because the minimum wage now after Jan. 1 is, nearly $16 dollars an hr. And I’ve noticed lately that there are far less employees at the checkout counters when I go there occasionally. I don’t care what Wally World pays an hr., there is no way that I would ever work for them ever just because.
I believe that I had far more disposable income when the minimum wage was $1.65 an hr. in the early 70’s and I was making $2.71 an hr. as a union janitor at Meier & Frank in Portland, Oregon when I was 18 and 19 years old. Because the dollar was worth more than it is now, we have lost a lot of buying power due to inflation. And $14 to $15 an hr. now will almost buy as much goods and services as the lower minimum wage did in the early 70’s. So, we really haven’t gained anything since then. Have we?
My parents bought their first home in 1971, a modest 3 bedroom rancher about 2,000 square feet, with a full basement and a huge backyard in a nice neighborhood on Spokane’s S, Hill for about $20 to $25,000 dollars. They lived there for the next 47 years until they both passed away in 2018. My 3 brothers and I sold it for nearly $350,000 dollars after they died, my dad and mom would’ve been appalled that it sold for that much. And to make matters worse the people who bought their older house completely remodeled and modernized it into a real nice house and are trying to flip it for nearly 600 K now. And now my brothers and I are the ones who are appalled at how outrageous that this is. Good grief, what is wrong with these people?