Walmart to Raise U.S. Wages, Provide One-Time Bonus

[Pickynerd]

I don't see why any of this is news, or at the very least a surprise. Walmart just did a wage hike mid to late last year, and cut jobs, all in one big stroke.

Walmart will consistently lose money to Amazon hand-over-fist because Walmart doesn't offer anything better than Amazon. Amazon has superior product choices, much better prices, a much better return policy that saves you time and frustration, you don't have to deal with struggling employee's who hate their jobs, or deal with long lines at the checkout. Not only that, but some of the people who shop there, yeah they should actually stay home and shop, honestly.

I haven't been to a Walmart in about 3 years, most recently was to get a ps4, and only because everything else was sold out (nearing holidays).

More to the topic the 1 time bonus up to 20 years getting the max of 1,000, it's that fine print that makes it seem like they care, but really only a handful of people have 20+ years of service and all they are getting is a measly 1,000 dollars ONCE! Some of those poor saps are getting 50 to 150 dollars, most of them are getting nothing because they are all seasonal peons, that might have 5 months behind their belts.

Brick and mortar retail needs to go, it offers nothing but taint in our communities.

[oxymoronic]

Brick and mortar retail needs to go, it offers nothing but taint in our communities.

amazon does not have a better return policy than walmart

and honestly it sounds like you are ranting and cant possibly mean half the dumb things you said.

also i find it funny u had to go to walmart to get your ps4, what happened to AMAZON BRO.

[Pickynerd]

amazon does not have a better return policy than walmart

and honestly it sounds like you are ranting and cant possibly mean half the dumb things you said.

also i find it funny u had to go to walmart to get your ps4, what happened to AMAZON BRO.

What do you mean I can't mean half the things I've said? Fuckin' Google it.

Amazon does have superior returns, if you think otherwise you have never stood in line at Walmart to return something that needs the approval of 2-3 people who ask the same questions that the person in returns just asked. Amazon, you state your issue and pop it back in the mailbox.

Because my son wanted one now, not in 2-3 days. (money burning a hole in his pocket)

[Spectral]

Fair enough but neither is Milk I would say if anything Housing is a good indicator.

Housing is not a great standalone indicator of cost of living. Using CPI or the Billion Price Project makes more sense if you need a single summary statistic. In reality, I think it's best to look at each common, major class of expenses (i.e. including housing and medical) to see potential bulges that can cause disproportionate strain.

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More to the topic the 1 time bonus up to 20 years getting the max of 1,000, it's that fine print that makes it seem like they care, but really only a handful of people have 20+ years of service and all they are getting is a measly 1,000 dollars ONCE! Some of those poor saps are getting 50 to 150 dollars, most of them are getting nothing because they are all seasonal peons, that might have 5 months behind their belts.

Yeah, at the risk of sounding like a humblebraggart, it's the sort of thing that makes me put the filter on that evaluates my own life through what it would look like to people that are excited to get that $1K - I am very lucky. Bonuses at my company fluctuate year-to-year and are a result of blackbox formulas that only a few people in accounting are even familiar with; I got $2K less this Christmas season and spent a bit of time concerned that it was related to diminished performance (or perception thereof). Thinking about that and then thinking about the reaction to the Wal-Mart news contextualizes what constitutes "fair" and that I'm fortunate regardless of whether any specific bonus I get is "fair" relative to coworkers.

I also agree with your point regarding Amazon. Sam Walton led a company that did amazing things in revolutionizing supply chains and distribution, substantially diminishing cost to consumers, but it's becoming clear that they can't keep up with online retail at this point. We'll see whether there's another chapter in the story, but right now, the Bezos empire looks like it's going to just keep absolutely dominating retail spaces. Their experiments with fresh foods (buying Whole Foods) are going to be fascinating.

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What do you mean I can't mean half the things I've said? Fuckin' Google it.

Amazon does have superior returns, if you think otherwise you have never stood in line at Walmart to return something that needs the approval of 2-3 people who ask the same questions that the person in returns just asked. Amazon, you state your issue and pop it back in the mailbox.

Because my son wanted one now, not in 2-3 days. (money burning a hole in his pocket)

Amazon return policy is baller as hell. For small items, they don't even ask for a return, they just give you the money back if you think the product sucked. I guess that could be subject to abuse, but I've personally used it like twice and think it's fantastic.

[Orange Joe]

God I fucking love Mr. President Trump. From declaring third world shitholes "shitholes", to tax breaks to overall better international relationships. Truly a godsend.

Did you miss the part about massive layoffs?

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we pay $1.29-$1.50 a gallon here in Michigan. just was going off what I know :P

Bullshit. Milk is almost $4 a gallon in MI.

To expand, I live in Northern MI where Milk is about 3.50 a gallon, but even in Detroit it's at about .76 a quart. Which ends up being about $3 per gallon.

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/detroit

[Drutt]

The tiny bonuses and wage increases from a couple of companies are just cynical attempts to ensure the tax rate doesn't go up again.

Wal-mart could ALREADY afford to pay those bonuses and raise the wages. They just didn't want to. Companies are afraid the tax cuts will go away when the Democrats regain control in the future, so they're trying to control the narrative by saying HEY LOOK IT'S GOOD GAIS SEE LOW TAXES ARE AWESOME.

Meanwhile, they hope you don't watch what they're doing with the other hand as they lay a bunch of people off/close stores.

[Spectral]

Wal-mart could ALREADY afford to pay those bonuses and raise the wages. They just didn't want to.

A lot of people continue to use this framing about what they can "afford" and what they want to do - it doesn't make sense in the context of labor markets. Salaries and bonuses aren't the result of what a company can afford to do, they're the result of what a company thinks it has to pay to maintain the labor force required to deliver its goods/services. A pay bump should be seen as a company anticipating additional competition for labor rather than as a some sort of gift.

[schwarzkopf]

LOL - the delusion continues, get $1.5 trillion tax cut, and out a few million to make it look good.

No wonder the GoP can get away with this crap - people actually believe the crap the president is saying.

[Bullettime]

"Priority transfers" is pretty meaningless when the volume of positions has been decreased. It's a pretty standard sop to people that are getting retrenched.

Yeah priority transfers doesn't mean anything because it depends on the other stores having openings and they'll still often take new hires over transfers because tenure carries over and they intentionally try to keep turnover at a certain level.

The wage raise was also already planned well in advance. Like they were told about the wage going up months ago before the tax stuff was even being debated.

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Whats funny though is that throughout the decades the minimum wage has always been roughly equal to $9 or less dollars vs inflation when historically graphed. States that have higher 9-10 dollar minimum wages are the highest minimum wages ever vs inflation dating back to the 40's...

http://www.businessinsider.com/feder...-center-2016-3

So its not like its something new...

Minimum wage is something you should live off when your young living with a roomate sharing a 700 dollar apartment with no kids and no bills.. not something you should try to raise a family on... and idk how we got to the point where people think they should be able to settle to flipping burgers as a full time job... as I said earlier go to school get a trade get a job in a company and move up... If your happy with minimum wage then you should be happy with sharing a 1 bedroom app with a roommate for the rest of your life.

Because the minimum wage was literally created for that fucking reason, regarding the livable wage bit and not just getting paid enough to be eligible for benefits and roomsharing with 3 people. It's like people get all their news from propaganda and not actual history.

[Armakus]

God I fucking love Mr. President Trump. From declaring third world shitholes "shitholes", to tax breaks to overall better international relationships. Truly a godsend.

Loving how you're choosing to read the positive and completely ignoring the negatives here. Information bias at it's strongest.

[Deleted]

OK, I see. Your complaint is that the tax cuts are not permanent. In that we agree. I think this "10 year cuts" are pretty silly. Just like when Bush did his and Obama and the Dem congress let them expire in 2010.

In 10 years there's time to make a new legislation and review all taxes you want.

[Drutt]

A lot of people continue to use this framing about what they can "afford" and what they want to do - it doesn't make sense in the context of labor markets. Salaries and bonuses aren't the result of what a company can afford to do, they're the result of what a company thinks it has to pay to maintain the labor force required to deliver its goods/services. A pay bump should be seen as a company anticipating additional competition for labor rather than as a some sort of gift.

"Labour markets" is a nonsense justification.

I own a small business and I pay my employees over minimum wage despite having revenues nowhere near Walmart's.

Walmart has no excuse to be paying their employees so little that many need state support on top of wages. None. They prefer to siphon more off for those at the top than pay employees what the company can already afford to pay them. Nothing is dictated to them, it's an elective decision.

[Spectral]

"Labour markets" is a nonsense justification.

I own a small business and I pay my employees over minimum wage despite having revenues nowhere near Walmart's.

Walmart has no excuse to be paying their employees so little that many need state support on top of wages. None. They prefer to siphon more off for those at the top than pay employees what the company can already afford to pay them. Nothing is dictated to them, it's an elective decision.

What do you think Wal-Mart's profit margin is?

If labor market pricing isn't what drives wage levels, what do you think does it?

[Pickynerd]

The tiny bonuses and wage increases from a couple of companies are just cynical attempts to ensure the tax rate doesn't go up again.

Wal-mart could ALREADY afford to pay those bonuses and raise the wages. They just didn't want to. Companies are afraid the tax cuts will go away when the Democrats regain control in the future, so they're trying to control the narrative by saying HEY LOOK IT'S GOOD GAIS SEE LOW TAXES ARE AWESOME.

Meanwhile, they hope you don't watch what they're doing with the other hand as they lay a bunch of people off/close stores.

I don't believe anyone is falling for this bull shit, but either way it will be on the news with a positive spin.

I don't think these retail giants care what party is in office, because either way they will make gross amounts of profits and continue to exploit the system and the people.

[ZettZu]

Minimum wage is something you should live off when your young living with a roomate sharing a 700 dollar apartment with no kids and no bills.. not something you should try to raise a family on... and idk how we got to the point where people think they should be able to settle to flipping burgers as a full time job... as I said earlier go to school get a trade get a job in a company and move up... If your happy with minimum wage then you should be happy with sharing a 1 bedroom app with a roommate for the rest of your life.

except the flaw in the system is that there are far too many jobs out there that only pay minimum wage, or very close to it. there aren't enough people in those categories to fill all those positions. and paying someone 5-15 cents more per hour to be a "supervisor" is a joke. but we can't force companies to pay employees certain wages for certain positions.

[Ragedaug]

In 10 years there's time to make a new legislation and review all taxes you want.

Like review them and make them last 11 years?? What's the point to making 10 year tax cuts. If it's right for today, it's right for the unforeseeable future. If it turns out it's right for today, but wrong for 2028, then change them in 2028 to be right for that time.

[Deleted]

Like review them and make them last 11 years?? What's the point to making 10 year tax cuts. If it's right for today, it's right for the unforeseeable future. If it turns out it's right for today, but wrong for 2028, then change them in 2028 to be right for that time.

Yeah exactly.

Also who knows by 2028 USA might be paying war reparations to half asia.

[ChampionChains]

This is a quick update.

I'd stated earlier that my wife is a manager of a Walmart. Today they had a call and were informed that the co-manager position in all stores is being made temporary going forward. Up to this point it has been a full time position, second only to the store manager. Usually stores have anywhere from 2-5 co-managers depending on the size and volume of the store (my wifes store has 2).

All co-managers nationwide have now been graded on a green-yellow-red system determined by their performance. Co-managers in the red are being given severance packages and will no longer be with the company. Yellow are being put on a 60 day probationary period at the end of which they'll be reevaluated and they'll either stay in the co-manager role, which now has a 2 year duration. At the end of the 2 years, you'll be promoted to the store manager position if there is one available for you to move into or you will be demoted into an assistant manager position (which currently exists below co-managers as entry level management). Green co-managers will remain co-managers, but only for the 2 year duration (it's like the yellow system, but without the 60 day probation).

Stores will now have 0-2 co-managers, so some stores are losing 3-5 co-managers. My wifes store currently has 2 co-managers, but is losing both on the 26th.This means the only time many of these stores will have upper management in the building is during the 8 hours the store manager is working. 24hr stores running with no upper management present for 2/3 of the business day. So the Sams Club firings weren't the only layoffs by Walmart in wake of the tax changes.

[Molis]

This is a quick update.

I'd stated earlier that my wife is a manager of a Walmart. Today they had a call and were informed that the co-manager position in all stores is being made temporary going forward. Up to this point it has been a full time position, second only to the store manager. Usually stores have anywhere from 2-5 co-managers depending on the size and volume of the store (my wifes store has 2).

All co-managers nationwide have now been graded on a green-yellow-red system determined by their performance. Co-managers in the red are being given severance packages and will no longer be with the company. Yellow are being put on a 60 day probationary period at the end of which they'll be reevaluated and they'll either stay in the co-manager role, which now has a 2 year duration. At the end of the 2 years, you'll be promoted to the store manager position if there is one available for you to move into or you will be demoted into an assistant manager position (which currently exists below co-managers as entry level management). Green co-managers will remain co-managers, but only for the 2 year duration (it's like the yellow system, but without the 60 day probation).

Stores will now have 0-2 co-managers, so some stores are losing 3-5 co-managers. My wifes store currently has 2 co-managers, but is losing both on the 26th.This means the only time many of these stores will have upper management in the building is during the 8 hours the store manager is working. 24hr stores running with no upper management present for 2/3 of the business day. So the Sams Club firings weren't the only layoffs by Walmart in wake of the tax changes.

That sucks
It is not a new idea though.
Trader Joes eliminated the Co-Manager a couple years ago.

Wal Mart probably saw this as a working model and went with it

[Zan15]

I don't see why any of this is news, or at the very least a surprise. Walmart just did a wage hike mid to late last year, and cut jobs, all in one big stroke.

Walmart will consistently lose money to Amazon hand-over-fist because Walmart doesn't offer anything better than Amazon. Amazon has superior product choices, much better prices, a much better return policy that saves you time and frustration, you don't have to deal with struggling employee's who hate their jobs, or deal with long lines at the checkout. Not only that, but some of the people who shop there, yeah they should actually stay home and shop, honestly.

I haven't been to a Walmart in about 3 years, most recently was to get a ps4, and only because everything else was sold out (nearing holidays).

More to the topic the 1 time bonus up to 20 years getting the max of 1,000, it's that fine print that makes it seem like they care, but really only a handful of people have 20+ years of service and all they are getting is a measly 1,000 dollars ONCE! Some of those poor saps are getting 50 to 150 dollars, most of them are getting nothing because they are all seasonal peons, that might have 5 months behind their belts.

Brick and mortar retail needs to go, it offers nothing but taint in our communities.

You should try walmart on line

they have a selection that is almost as good as amazon, and you can even pick much of the stuff up same day. Has the same shipping amazon does and beats them at returns since you can return it 1 minute after it arrives at any Walmart store.

Their prices are just as competitive now.

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Whats funny though is that throughout the decades the minimum wage has always been roughly equal to $9 or less dollars vs inflation when historically graphed. States that have higher 9-10 dollar minimum wages are the highest minimum wages ever vs inflation dating back to the 40's...

http://www.businessinsider.com/feder...-center-2016-3

So its not like its something new...

Minimum wage is something you should live off when your young living with a roomate sharing a 700 dollar apartment with no kids and no bills.. not something you should try to raise a family on... and idk how we got to the point where people think they should be able to settle to flipping burgers as a full time job... as I said earlier go to school get a trade get a job in a company and move up... If your happy with minimum wage then you should be happy with sharing a 1 bedroom app with a roommate for the rest of your life.

ya screw those 30-40-50+ year olds who lost their 40-50k a year jobs during the recession and did not plan on it happening!!!!!


They should go back to school and pay for it with, umm, their min wage jobs!! umm,yea

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Whats funny though is that throughout the decades the minimum wage has always been roughly equal to $9 or less dollars vs inflation when historically graphed. States that have higher 9-10 dollar minimum wages are the highest minimum wages ever vs inflation dating back to the 40's...

http://www.businessinsider.com/feder...-center-2016-3

So its not like its something new...

Minimum wage is something you should live off when your young living with a roomate sharing a 700 dollar apartment with no kids and no bills.. not something you should try to raise a family on... and idk how we got to the point where people think they should be able to settle to flipping burgers as a full time job... as I said earlier go to school get a trade get a job in a company and move up... If your happy with minimum wage then you should be happy with sharing a 1 bedroom app with a roommate for the rest of your life.

Depends on what is used to track and calculate inflation....

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...ially-reported


Been lots of studies and discussion about the shadow inflation numbers since they started to "adjust" things...

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You know how they could have raised wages without the tax scam?

Pay the Waltons a million or two less per year so that they're only worth, say, an even $89 billion rather than $89.5 billion.

This is a PR stunt by Walmart, nothing more. They could have raised wages for employees at any time and would have remained just as profitable, but they chose not to. The Waltons are ardent Trump supporters, so ofc they would say the raises and bonuses are a result of the tax scam.

There is enough proof that they would have done this without tax cuts, the only difference in 2017-2018 is this country will borrow 1.5 trillion to give to these companies to give to employees.

Why not just cut out the middleman.??? ..oh that's because walmart is keeping 80-90% of the money and giving 42 cent raises with the leftover 10%.


2016 10.58 average.....2017 11 bucks...........42 fucking cents......that is actually 16 cents less then they gave from 2015 > 2016 and 10 cents less then they gave 2014 > 2015




without any tax breaks they gave a 2% bonus last year and increases in pay


Bonuses without tax cuts
https://news.walmart.com/2016/09/21/...n-cash-bonuses

Associates at or above their pay band maximum will receive a one-time lump sum payment equal to 2 percent of their annual pay.


Raises without tax cuts 2016
https://news.walmart.com/news-archiv...crease-in-2016

When these changes go into effect,
Walmart’s average full-time hourly wage will be $13.38/hour.
The average part-time hourly wage will be $10.58/hour.

Raises without tax cuts 2015

https://news.walmart.com/_download?i...f-a79de48c0000

• When these changes go into effect in April:
o The average full-time hourly wage will be $13/hour (up from $12.85).
o The average part-time hourly wage will be $10/hour (up from $9.48).