Walmart employees to get raises

[Zippyjuan]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/19/walmart-employees-raises/23666047/

After years of employee protests and outrage over meager pay, Walmart said Thursday that it will spend $1 billion this year to give raises to half-a-million workers.

About 500,000 full- and part-time associates at both Walmart and the company's Sam's Club warehouse stores will start making $9 an hour or more in April. The world's largest retailer made the announcement Thursday as part of its fourth-quarter earnings report. That's at least $1.75 more than the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25. By February 2016, hourly employees will make at least $10 an hour after completing about six months of training.

CEO Doug McMillon said that the decision to hike wages was made as part of a strategy to retain employees and improve customer service.

"We want associates that care about the company and are highly engaged in our business and are leaning in," he said. "Those feelings generate a customer experience that drives growth."

Walmart shares closed down 3.21% in afternoon trading to $83.52.


Walmart employs more than 1.3 million people in the U.S. Of the 500,000 employees getting raises, approximately 6,000 currently make the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, says spokesperson Kory Lundberg. The remaining 494,000 employees getting raises are either making between $7.25 and $9 an hour, or more than $9 an hour and are getting raises to meet new minimum or maximum pay grades for certain positions.

Full-time employees currently make an average of $12.85 an hour, and part-time employees make an average of $9.48, Lundberg says. Those averages will increase to $13 and $10 respectively under the new plan.

If you work 30 hours a week, that additional $0.15 an hour translates to an extra $4.50 a week before taxes. About a gallon and half of gas. And to note that while 6,000 make the federal minimum wage, most states have minimum wages higher than the federal one and does not say how many get the state minimum wage.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Must be a lot of significant union grumbling again. Thanks for raising costs and prices.

 

[green73]

Schiff: The Unseen Consequences of Wal-Mart’s Wage Hike

Wal-Mart announced yesterday that it is going to raise its minimum wage to $9 an hour, which will affect a half-million employees. Many are praising the company and saying this will improve the lives of low-wage workers, while also providing a boost to the American economy. However, Peter Schiff isn’t so optimistic. He explained to Yahoo! Finance why Wal-Mart’s minimum wage increase isn’t necessarily a net positive for the economy.

The wage increase will cost Wal-Mart about $1 billion this year. Who knows if Wal-Mart will pass along the cost of higher wages to its customers by raising prices? More importantly, Wal-Mart will probably cut back on hiring, which means low-income Americans will have that much more difficulty finding a job.

video

 

[Spikender]

The Walmarts where I live are already horribly understaffed and miserable circuses of corporate laughability.

Here's a toast to more of that. Oh yeah.

 

[silverhandorder]

Looks like good money.

 

[juleswin]

Good for walmart, I wish they can find even more ways to raise wages while cutting prices. Screw Peter Schiff for being the eternal pessimist. They did this one their own free will without govt force and for me, I hope it works out for everyone.

 

[CaptUSA]

Wait, you mean they did this without a law telling them to?!! That doesn't seem right.

 

[green73]

Wait, you mean they did this without a law telling them to?!! That doesn't seem right.

Probably a promise of a subsidy floated their way.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Must be a lot of significant union grumbling again. Thanks for raising costs and prices.

We don't want good paying jobs. We want low prices. Thanks China and Walmart for contributing to the growing middle class!

Walmart had $130 billion in sales and $16 billion in profits last year. http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiem...family-dollar-acquisition-turn-things-around/

 

[Spikender]

If I could pay a penny for my China made umbrella from Walmart, I would.

 

[CaptUSA]

We don't want good paying jobs. We want low prices. Thanks China and Walmart for contributing to the growing middle class!

Walmart had $130 billion in sales and $16 billion in profits last year. http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiem...family-dollar-acquisition-turn-things-around/

How much did everyone who shops there save?

 

[Zippyjuan]

How much did the people at the stores Walmart customers used to shop at lose? And the stores those people shopped at? But well paying jobs don't matter. (It is a trade-off- we don't get both. Cheap prices and fewer, low paying jobs or higher prices and more higher paying jobs).

 

[CaptUSA]

How much did the bank tellers lose when we got ATM's?

 

[Ronin Truth]

We don't want good paying jobs. We want low prices. Thanks China and Walmart for contributing to the growing middle class!

Walmart had $130 billion in sales and $16 billion in profits last year. http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiem...family-dollar-acquisition-turn-things-around/

Everybody hates WalMart except for the customers and the stockholders.

 

[CaptUSA]

It is a trade-off- we don't get both.

And that's BS! We do get both.

You say that Walmart had $16 billion in profits. WE can guess roughly, their shoppers saved about the same. That's $32 billion. Subtract the lost profit of existing businesses (Which has to be lower than Walmart's profits), let's say $15 billion, to be conservative. That's still a increase to the economy of $17 billion. Some of that goes right into other jobs - like home construction, renovation, other services... and some goes into investments. Which other companies then use to hire employees (or would if the conditions were favorable, but that's another story).

Damn Keynesians...

 

[juleswin]

How much did the people at the stores Walmart customers used to shop at lose? And the stores those people shopped at? But well paying jobs don't matter. (It is a trade-off- we don't get both. Cheap prices and fewer, low paying jobs or higher prices and more higher paying jobs).

Only if the consumers kept on shopping at the high wage paying mom and pop stores that existed before walmart, we would still have them and their good paying jobs today. But the consumers allowed themselves to be seduced by walmart cheap prices. So lets all blame the decline of the middle class of greedy Americans, their pursuit of low prices has lead to the loss of millions of good paying low skilled work.

From today onwards, I am boycotting Americans. Btw, I don't shop at walmart because one always have to bring advertisement from other store to get a low price and I rather shop at the store advertising the low price than go to walmart. So I boycott walmart for a different reason than most.

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

CEO Doug McMillon said that the decision to hike wages was made as part of a strategy to retain employees and improve customer service.

"We want associates that care about the company and are highly engaged in our business and are leaning in," he said. "Those feelings generate a customer experience that drives growth."

LOL. This is nothing more than a PR move. They timed this with the multiple minimum wages increases in multiple states. Now they're making it sound like a "strategy."

The slickness goes on. Nice propaganda piece, bub.

 

[Jordan]

Not sure why anyone would take a dump on Wal-Mart for this very patriotic move.

Economically, this pretty important. Wal-Mart just increased the bar for wages at the bottom. That's probably a good thing.

Also, although the OP's copied article shows that most people are already earning close to $9 per hour, few, if any, are already earning $10. After one year, $10 will be the default wage. At 20 hours per week, that's another $20 in workers' pockets. Good for them.

I think it's a smart business decision. With unemployment under 6%, more competitive wages should bring better employees. It was bound to happen.

 

[angelatc]

The Walmarts where I live are already horribly understaffed and miserable circuses of corporate laughability.

Here's a toast to more of that. Oh yeah.

Ye, I think this is more about employee retention than union interests.

 

[angelatc]

How much did the people at the stores Walmart customers used to shop at lose? And the stores those people shopped at? But well paying jobs don't matter. (It is a trade-off- we don't get both. Cheap prices and fewer, low paying jobs or higher prices and more higher paying jobs).

I used to work at one of those Mom & Pop shops that liberals love to fantasize about. We all made minimum wage and had zero benefits. Their prices were higher. Most of the money that was "lost" was lost by the manufacturers, not the consumers and not the shop owners. (Yes they lost but the money was relatively insignificant in the over all scheme of things.)