Walmart adds employee benefits amid federal scrutiny over wages, stock buybacks
Walmart will offer its hourly associates 48-hours of paid-time off and provide greater quarterly financial incentives to those employees who don’t miss a day of work.
The recent announcement comes as the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company faces fresh scrutiny from top elected officials over its minimum wage, as well as the decision to lay off workers after announcing a new, $15 billion share repurchase program.
“This change, along with previous wage investments, parental leave, adoption and other benefits, is another important step on our journey to be the employer of choice,” Drew Holler, vice president of associate experience at Walmart U.S., said in a statement.
The new policies would allow the more than 300,000 hourly workers at the world's largest retailer with spotless attendance to earn an extra 25 percent in quarterly cash bonuses for store performance, according to Holler. The new paid-time off offering would not count against an employee’s attendance record, the company said.
The changes reflect the battle among U.S. companies for talent in an increasingly tight labor market. The unemployment rate in January rose to 4 percent, up from 3.9 percent in December, and employers added 304,000 jobs – the 100th straight month of gains.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | WALMART INC. | 87.19 | +0.59 | +0.69% |
Walmart previously announced it would raise the minimum wage for its employees to $11 per hour. But its decision to close 63 Sam’s Club stores was cited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, as justification for legislation to make it more difficult for companies to initiate stock buybacks.
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With the share repurchase, the company “could have raised hourly wages of every single Walmart employee to $15,” the two lawmakers wrote in an op-ed on Monday.