feWalmart Raising Hourly Wages For 100,000 Specialty Department Employees

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(Mike Mozart)

Four months after Walmart began raising wages for around 40% of its workers, the nation’s largest retailer is announcing another round of pay increases affecting around 100,000 additional employees.

Reuters reports that Walmart will begin raising the wages for workers and managers of certain departments starting next month, covering a small portion of the company’s estimated 1.3 million employees.

The changes in pay range from increase of a $1 to $3, depending on the service department and type of employee.

For example, the current hourly pay for managers in electronics and auto care ranges from $10-$20. After the wage increases, that range will be more like $13-$24.50/hour.

Managers in departments like clothing and consumer products will see less dramatic increases, taking their hourly pay from the current range of $9.90-$19.31 to $10.90-$20.71.

Wage increases for deli section managers are also coming, but the bump in pay will be less than $1/hour, according to Reuters’ numbers.

In addition to the new hourly increases, Walmart announced it will start paying store associates 10% more per hour when they get promoted, representing about a 40-cent increase on average. That change is expected to begin in mid-August, a company spokesperson tells Reuters.

The most recent wage news from Walmart comes just four months after the company unveiled plans to give nearly 40% of its 1.3 million employees pay increases over the next year.

At that time, the retailer also began testing a new program that would offer workers fixed schedules; meaning they would work the same hours each week.

For the past several years, Walmart has come under scrutiny by labor advocates, unions and employees who claim the company underpays workers. The retailer has maintained that the average full-time hourly wage is $12.92, but critics said the figure doesn’t take into consideration the many employees who are not considered full-time because the company has reduced the number of hours they work each week.

Thousands of workers and advocacy groups have protested the retail giant in recent months for its continuous low pay and working conditions.

In late December, the company announced that in order to be in compliance with more than two dozen state’s minimum wage laws, it would increase the pay for 1/3 of its workers during 2015.

Wal-Mart to raise wages for 100,000 U.S. workers in some departments [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist