Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains hourly workers as the embattled retailer tries to reshape the image that its stores offer dead-endjobs.
As part of its biggest investment in worker training and pay ever, Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that within the next six months it will give raises to about 500,000 workers, or nearly 40 percent of its 1.3 million employees. Wal-Mart follows other retailers that have boosted hourly pay recently, but because it’s the nation’s largest private employer, the impact of its move will be more closely watched.
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n addition to raises, Wal-Mart said it plans to make changes to how workers are scheduled and add training programs for sales staff so that employees can more easily map out their future at the company.
“We are trying to create a meritocracy where you can start somewhere and end up just as high as your hard work and your capacity will enable you to go,” CEO Doug McMillon told the AP during an interview this week at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The changes, which Wal-Mart announced Thursday as it reported fourth quarter results, come at a time when there’s growing concern for the plight of the nation’s hourly workers.
Thousands of hourly workers and their supporters have staged protests across the country in the past couple of years to call attention to their financial struggles. Business groups and politicians have jumped into the fray, debating a proposal by President Obama to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. And a new Associated Press-GfK poll found that most Americans support increasing the minimum wage.
At the same time, the competition for retail workers is becoming increasingly stiff. As shoppers get more mobile savvy, retailers are seeking sales staff that’s more skilled at customer service. But in the improving economy, the most desirable retail workers feel more confident in hopping from job to job.
Wal-Mart, which has struggled for two years with sluggish sales, follows other big retailers that have announced plans to increase pay for its workers. Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea this year gave thousands of workers at its U.S. division a 17 percent average raise to $10.76 an hour. And clothing chain Gap Inc. raised its minimum hourly wage of employees to $9 last year and $10 this year.
Wal-Mart has faced growing pressure by organized labor groups to raise its starting hourly wages to $15 and provide works with more consistent hours. With its changes, the company’s average full-time wage for worker will be $13 an hour, up from $12.85. For part-time workers, the hourly wage will be $10, up from $9.48.
That’s below the $14.65 average that hourly retail workers in a non-supervisory role earn, according to government data that includes people who work at auto dealers and other outlets that would likely pay more than discounters like Wal-Mart. But it’s above the $9.93 average hourly pay for cashiers and low level retail sales staff, according to Hay Group’s survey of 140 retailers with annual sales of $500 million.
Ed Lazear, a Stanford University economics professor who served as an informal adviser to Wal-Mart during the past year for the program, applauded Wal-Mart’s moves.
“It’s positioning itself to (cont’d)
