Dive Brief:
- Walmart is adding $20,000 in stock grants to the annual compensation packages for its Supercenter store managers in the U.S., starting in April, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner announced on Monday. Managers of Walmart Neighborhood Market or Division 1 stores are eligible for $15,000 stock grants and managers of Hometown stores are eligible for $10,000 stock grants, according to an email from a Walmart spokesperson.
- Last week, the company said it’s raising the average salary for store managers to $128,000 a year. Store managers are now also eligible for annual bonuses of up to 200% of their salary.
- Based on the new average salary, the highest annual bonus possible and the full $20,000 stock grant, a U.S.-based Walmart Supercenter manager could earn $404,000 — or more — annually.
Dive Insight:
CEO John Furner shared the news during the company’s beginning-of-year meeting in Houston and also in a video announcement posted to his personal LinkedIn page.
“A Walmart store manager is running a multimillion-dollar business and managing hundreds of people,” Furner said in the video. “And it’s a far more complex job today than when I managed a store. And we ask our managers to own their roles and to act like owners. And now, they’ll literally be owners.”
Walmart hasn’t yet released its fourth-quarter or full-year earnings. But in Q3, the company reported its global revenue rose to $160.8 billion, which was up 5.2% from the prior year. Comparable sales for Walmart U.S. rose nearly 5% and net sales rose 4.4% to $109.4 billion.
Walmart has 3,560 U.S. Supercenters, 675 Neighborhood Markets, 361 Discount Stores and 20 small-format stores. Along with 599 Sam’s Clubs, the company has about 5,215 U.S. retail locations overall, according to its website.
Physical stores are a key component of Walmart’s omnichannel services, which include pickup and store-fulfilled delivery. They are driving growth and contributed to a 24% increase in Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce sales, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said during a November earnings call, according to a Motley Fool transcript.
Walmart did not immediately respond to questions from Retail Dive regarding how many store managers work in the U.S. and how many managers typically receive their maximum bonuses annually. As of January last year, the company employed about 1.6 million total store associates in the U.S., 70% of whom were full-time.
The company touts that about 75% of its field management teams, including Furner, started as hourly employees. The starting pay for hourly associates ranges from $14 to $19 depending on the position and the local market. In October, the company eliminated the requirement to have a college degree for some corporate jobs. Store managers are also not required to have a college degree.
