Up To $19 Increase In Minimum Hourly Wage Of Walmart Employees

Walmart has announced an increase of up to $19 for the minimum hourly wage of their stores’ employees. Aside from the store employees, the wages of Walmart’s associates and the overall minimum wage will also be increased.

Walmart Employees [Photo: Employee Benefit News]

The overall minimum wage will also be increased by Walmart to $14 per hour. This is approximately a 17% increase for the employees who stock the shelves and serve customers in the stores. Roughly 340,000 Walmart employees or 21% of the 1.6 million employees in the U.S. will be receiving this increase. These increases will be received mostly by the employees whose jobs are where the labor market is more cutthroat.

According to Salemann, John Furner, the president and CEO of Walmart in the U.S. has announced the increase for the employees in a note issued on Walmart’s website. Furner announced that the wage increase is part of Walmart’s endeavor to keep its jobs and employees. The increase reportedly includes a combination of minimum hourly wage increases for thousands of Walmart employees and yearly increases for its associates. Furner also announced that the increases will be reflected in the employees’ paychecks this March.

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Huge Demand for Employees Despite Layoffs

According to Wile, despite the recent layoffs in the tech and white-collar industries, there is still a huge demand for low-wage employees. Aside from Walmart, large retail companies like Amazon, Target, and Costco have also announced increases in their employees’ wages. Nick Bunker, an economic research director, says that the recent layoffs are not the beginning of a large-scale unemployment. This is because employers would not consider increasing the wages of their employees if they believe that the labor market is declining.

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