Walmart will offer a new bonus program for its US hourly store workers, including those in its pharmacy and Vision Center locations.Â
This initiative aims to enhance wages for approximately 700,000 front-line employees.
According to Walmart US CEO John Furner, part-time and full-time associates will be eligible for a financial bonus of up to $1,000 annually.
The concept emerged from feedback provided by store workers.
The new bonus program follows Walmart’s January announcement of a redesigned bonus structure for its US store managers.
It allows them to earn an annual bonus of up to 200 percent of their salary.
Me Furner said: “It’s important that we are competitive on base wages.”
The bonus initiative was revealed just hours before Walmart’s annual general meeting, where investors voted on seven shareholder proposals.
One significant proposal urged Walmart to establish a compensation policy ensuring workers earn enough to meet a family’s basic needs.
To qualify for the bonus, hourly workers must be with the company for at least a year and meet certain store performance targets, Furner added.
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Walmart employs about 1.6 million workers in the US, with the majority staffing its 4,700 stores.
However, representatives from The Shareholder Commons, an activist investor group, said: “Walmart workers fall dramatically short of a living wage… and it fails to address the economic damage” that entails.
The group, acting on behalf of the proposal filers, Legal & General Investment Management America and a co-filer, also noted that Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon, earns 933 times more than the company’s median employee.
Walmart said the bonus plan rewards both performance and long-term service.
The company currently pays a minimum hourly wage starting at $14, less than the $15 starting wage offered by Amazon.com and Target.
Despite Walmart’s opposition to the shareholder proposal, it received about 4.4 percent of the votes on Wednesday, June 5.
