Walmart Restructuring Means An Income Boost

Walmart has more than 30,000 employees working at 95 stores throughout Michigan. Many are enjoying a new pay hike. Some are also being given more responsibilities for how the stores are run. Employees in two key departments, the bakery and deli, are seeing their minimum wage level bumped to $15 per hour. Walmart Supercenters are also doing some restructuring. Those stores are the workhorse of the Walmart business model.  They’re now setting up small teams, cross trained to handle stocking and store visual standards. The hourly team lead roles start out with pay of between $18 and $21 an hour. Some will be up as high as $30 per hour.

The pay increases at most Walmart stores are taking effect this month. They take the place of annual increases previously handed out by Walmart in February or April. Walmart has been doing ok through the COVID-19 virus outbreak.  It has handed out  $1.1 billion in bonuses to employees since mid-March.

Walmart’s media release about the changes spells out some more of the background details.

“Overall, we are raising wages for approximately 165,000 hourly associates across all Walmart U.S. stores. We are re-investing in several ways to provide associates with higher and more consistent base pay. All of the above associates will get an increase in pay in October, taking the place of the annual increase they typically have to wait until February or April to receive. Likewise, for these select hourly roles, this increase will also take the place of the regular quarterly bonus and become part of their base pay going forward, offering more predictability and more pay in their hourly wages. These associates will continue to be eligible to receive quarterly bonuses for Q3 and Q4 of this year. When we’ve asked associates, the overwhelming majority say their hourly wages are the most important part of their pay, well ahead of quarterly bonuses.”