Wal-Mart Increasing Wages For Nearly 500,000 Employees
Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon has sent a letter and video to all Wal-Mart associates to help explain more about the news that they would all soon be getting a raise.
He announced a full package of comprehensive changes they are pursuing to their hiring, training, compensation, and scheduling programs, as well as to the stores structure, hoping these changes will be sustainable over the long term.
One of the most immediate changes is that they will raise their starting pay, and also be providing opportunities for further raises based on performance. For their current associates, they will be raising the entry wage to at least $9 an hour in April, and, by February of next year, all current associates will earn at least $10 an hour.
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In trying to strengthen their department manager roles, Wal-Mart also announced it will raise the starting wage for some of these positions to at least $13 an hour this summer and at least $15 an hour early next year.
Sam’s Club is also making some important changes, specifically in regards to starting wages.
“As important as a starting wage is, what’s even more important is opportunity, and we’ll continue to provide that ladder that any of you can climb. If you work hard, develop new skills and care for others, there should be no limit to what you can do here,” said McMillon, on the Walmart.com blog.
Many larger corporations like Wal-Mart have really stepped up and started raising wages across the U.S.
Companies such as Ikea and Gap, Inc. have also recently announced raising the minimum wages of their employees in hopes to join the list of already high-paying wages like Costco and In-And-out-Burger.
Since President Obama called for a minimum wage increase in his 2013 State of the Union address, 13 states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws to raise their minimum wage. According to estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers, about seven million American workers will benefit from these increases as of 2017.
