Walmart Offers 6-Figure Salaries to Store Managers: A Game-Changer in Retail?

The high salaries of Walmart, America’s largest offline retailer, have gained significant attention in the U.S.

On the 29th (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Walmart, a large retail distributor, offers salaries of over $400,000, including bonuses and stocks, to attract store managers.

According to the media outlet, Walmart increased the average annual salary of store managers from $117,000 to $128,000 at the beginning of this month and also raised the maximum bonus from 150% to 200%. With the addition of a maximum of $20,000 in stock rewards and a maximum of 200% bonus, successful managers of large stores can receive up to $404,000, WSJ explained.

Thousands of Walmart managers in the U.S. operate stores with 350 employees and annual sales of $100 million.

75% of Walmart’s managers come from part-time workers. It is not a job that requires a high level of education, such as a college degree. After about five years of work, they are allowed to become a manager.

John Furner, the CEO of Walmart in the U.S. and a former store manager, evaluated that introducing the Walmart stock grants made it easier for managers to think and act like owners.

Regarding the background of improving treatment for store managers, CEO Furner said that the manager’s work has become more complicated in recent years, and they are evaluated and responsible for e-commerce orders that occur in the store.

CEO Furner said that the turnover rate of Walmart store managers stabilized last year compared to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and said, “We keep managers working longer in one store.”

So far, Walmart has been making large-scale investments for more employees. In September of last year, it announced a wage structure change that adjusts hourly wages across all job roles and departments. Last year, it also hired about 1.6 million employees in the U.S. alone to increase its workforce.

The background of Walmart’s wage increase includes a steady rise in wages and a good performance in retail sales in December last year.

The U.S. retail sales growth rate in December last year, a big shopping season in the U.S., showed a strong performance that exceeded expectations. On the 17th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that retail sales in December last year increased by 0.6% from the previous month. This is twice as high as the increase of 0.3% in November and exceeds the expert forecast of 0.4% compiled by WSJ.