Walmart US store managers earn an average of $175,000 per year: Report
While working a retail job may seem like it's without its benefits, the new Environmental, Social & Governance report released by Walmart shows that a manager at their store earns a six-figure salary on average per year, which is most definitely not a figure to be scoffed at.
Walmart, United States' largest private employer that employs more than 1.5 million workers in the country, has previously been criticized for its $11 minimum wage, even by their notoriously penny-pinching arch-rivals Amazon, though it is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
In response, the retail company said it had raised its starting wages in the UnitedStates by more than 50% over the past three years. It also pointed out how, including benefits and bonuses, the average wage for a full-time, hourly worker at any of their stores was $14.26 an hour.
Department managers, on the other hand, earned as much as $24.70 an hour. The company said that, over the course of the year, their managers, on average, earned a very respectable $175,000 a year.
Furthermore, the company is also a trendsetter as far as diversity in its workforce is concerned. Women make up 55% of its workforce and 43% of management, and people of color similarly making up around 44%, with Walmart stating that its retail jobs provide "a gateway to upward mobility for millions of people."
Praising his company's efforts, CEO Doug McMillion said in the report, ""We believe it’s important to run our business in a way that generates lasting value for our customers, our associates, our shareholders and for society more broadly," adding that they were "investing in our associates through wages along with better educational opportunities, benefits, and training."
Indeed, Walmart's introduction of Walmart Academy to train its workers in advanced skills and its expansion of paid-time off and parental leave policies has paid dividends and seen its worker turnover at a five-year low.
The 94-page social governance report also addressed the hot potato topic of climate change. The company said its goal was to use 50% renewable energy by 2025, up from the current 28%.They also said they were aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 18% by 2025 from 2015 levels and that they were on track to reduce 1 billion metric tons of emissions from its global supply chains by 2030.
"We believe climate change is likely to affect national economies and supply chains around the world through potential effects such as lower crop yields, increased health costs and storm damage," the report read.
Some of the other key highlights from the report included how more than 75% of Walmart U.S. store operation management team members started as hourly employees and how 215,000 had been promoted to jobs of greater responsibility and higher pay in Walmart U.S. stores in the fiscal year 2019.