Average Walmart store manager makes RM735,000; many workers earn below poverty line

WALMART said its average store manager now makes US$175,000 (RM735,000) a year, while its average full-time hourly worker makes US$14.26 (about RM60) an hour, as the largest private employer in the US tries to attract workers in an ever-tightening job market.

Starting wages at Walmart have risen more than 50 per cent in the past three years, according to a company report released this week.

Salaries have also continued to rise for store managers, whose pay is calculated based on a number of factors, including the size of the store and its sales.

“In many cases, our store managers will be running the biggest business in their communities, with as much as US$100 million in sales,” said Kory Lundberg, a spokesman for Walmart. “This is a recognition of their efforts.”

But labour advocacy groups say the retailer’s hourly pay is still too low for many of its workers, particularly given the US$129 billion in profits it posted last year.

“Too many people who work at Walmart are stuck in parttime, low wage jobs,” said Cyndi Murray, a Walmart employee and member of United for Respect, an employee group that advocates for workers’ rights.

“Conveniently, Walmart would like to focus on how much store managers get paid, but about half a million associates are . . . being left out of the equation.”

Murray, a fitting room attendant in Laurel, has been working for Walmart for 19 years. She is a fulltime employee and makes less than US$15 an hour. “This has to change,” she said.

Average hourly pay of US$14.26 equals about US$25,200 ( about RM106,000) a year for 34-hour weeks, which is considered full time at Walmart. That is below the national poverty line for a family of four.

CEO Doug McMillon, by comparison, received a pay package worth nearly US$24 million last year, company filings show.

Retailers have struggled in recent years to attract and keep low-wage workers as the national unemployment rate hits record lows. The national unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent is at its lowest level since 1969.

Walmart, which has about 1.5 million US employees, raised its hourly starting wage to US$11 last year to keep up with higherpaying competitors such as Target, Costco and CVS.

“When the labour market tightens, retail is one of the first industries to feel it,” said Hyunseob Kim, a professor of labour economics at Cornell University’s Johnson graduate school of management.

“Retail workers tend to be generalists - what a Walmart worker does is similar to what a Macy’s worker does - so it’s easy for them to move from one employer to another.”

Walmart workers have historically criticised the company for making it difficult to secure full-time work that would make them eligible for benefits like health care and tuition assistance. — Washington Post.