Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has formally announced that it plans on raising the wages of more than 100,000 U.S workers in a select few departments from July, 2015.
The world’s largest retailer has been under continuous pressure from various labor-backed organizations to improve the treatment of its workers. This latest wage hike announcement from Wal-Mart is the second one in the last couple of months, as the company is trying to re-structure its existing pay scale and hierarchy. The minimum wages for both entry-level long-term hourly employees was announced to be raised to at-least $ 10 by February, 2016.
Wal-Mart is slowly implementing its $ 1 billion program to improve the quality of its human resource, by emphasizing on training, increasing basic pay and giving more autonomy to the employees on fixing their own schedule. The company believes that by investing in its employees, the overall customer service will improve resulting in higher sales volume.
The new wage rates, according to an Associated Press report, will vary depending on the nature of department and complexity of the job.
The hourly wage of managers of electronics and auto-care departments will increase to $ 13 - $ 24.70 from $ 10.30 - $ 20.09 currently. The clothing and consumer products department managers will now have the potential to earn $ 9.90 - $ 18.81 from the beginning of next month, in comparison to $ 9.20 - $ 18.53 at present.
These wage-hikes are also part of the ‘elimination of zone managers’ program, as the company is planning to reallocate these jobs to assistant or department managers in each individual store. The company hopes that this move will provide an extra incentive to the workers, as they will now have a greater degree of control on how their stores should be run. Wal-Mart also plans to open 8,000 more department manager positions designated to oversee one specific area only.
“There’s a lot of excitement about the new department managers, the level of ownership they take,” said Kristin Oliver, executive vice-president of people for Wal-Mart’s U.S. division. The world’s largest private employer believes that its human resource is the key in regaining some of the lost momentum, especially at its U.S division.
