Walmart has rolled out a new set of perks for thousands of its store managers in an effort to retain talent in their chains, and those perks are looking, well, pretty perky.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, with bonuses and a new stock program, some will bring home more than $400,000 per year.
“It’s fair to say that we’re asking them to act like owners and to think like owners,” said John Furner, chief executive of Walmart US, per the New York Times.
Many managers in the chain start out in entry-level positions that don’t require a college degree, like cashiers, and work their way up the ladder to manage stores.
This can involve overseeing hundreds of employees and upward of $100 million in sales.
Managers have seen additional responsibilities, like fulfilling e-commerce orders, a growing part of the company’s overall revenue.
How that hefty salary shakes out:
- Base salary: Managers received a bump there, which now averages $128,000.
- Annual bonuses: These can run up to 200% of salaries.
- Stock grants: These are new to employees at the manager level and come with recognition that their jobs have gotten more complex since the pandemic. They can earn up to $20,000 in stock grants, depending on what type of store one supervises. Superstore managers earn the most, $20,000, followed by managers of 70,000-square-foot “neighborhood” stores ($15,000), and “hometown” stores under 70,000 square feet ($10,000).
“We’re keeping store managers in their location a bit longer, and it’s good for an entire team to have a manager for a few years versus a year or something less than that,” Furner said, according to Axios.
Meanwhile, hourly employees, about 94% of Walmart’s workforce, will receive a smaller pay bump. Last year their wages rose from an average of $17 to $17.50 per hour, and they’ll increase again slightly, to $18.
