In April 2016, more than 500,000 full-time and part-time Wal-Mart employees nationwide will receive pay raises to a minimum of $9 per hour, according to Bloomberg. That figure will increase to a minimum of $10 per hour in February of 2016. These employees amount to more than a third of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club workers.
While President Obama proposed raising the nationwide minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in his 2013 State of the Union address, his efforts since then have repeatedly been blocked by Congress. However, in a recent interview with CNN Money, Wal-Mart’s vice president of investor relations, Carol Schumacher, said the company is not taking a position based on the decisions of the government.
“Any time any company, whether it’s us or someone else, raises wages, it’s a help for the economy,” Schumacher said to CNN Money.
Wal-Mart said that in 2014 the average pay per hour for their employees was already $12.94, and the raise to $9 per hour in April will put that figure at more than $13 per hour, according to CNN. Other nationwide corporations are following in Wal-Mart’s footsteps like Gap Inc., who will be raising their minimum wage to $10 per hour this year, and Ikea, who raised their minimum wage to $10.76 per hour last year. According to Bloomberg, these minimum wage increases primarily attempt to decrease employee turnovers, which cost companies millions of dollars every year, resulting in increased profits and increased productivity from those hired for the long haul. This business model is idealized by companies like Costco, who pay their employees a starting rate of more than $11 per hour and have a turnover rate of only 17 percent — a figure that drops to 6 percent after one year’s employment.
Senior Brandtly Wheeler said he worked at Wal-Mart for six months and saw little evidence of employees deserving $10 an hour. Wheeler said he was an overnight stocker whose work was considered hazardous by his superiors, but said even he did not think he should be paid that much money.
“Ten dollars an hour should really only be given to employees who work hard, are reliable, trustworthy, and have proven … that they can excel at every part of their job,” Wheeler said.
Sophomore Darrell Gomez said he started working for Wal-Mart last year in California as a cashier. According to Gomez, the California minimum wage at the time was already $9 per hour. Now as a Wal-Mart employee in Searcy, Gomez has only been making the standard Arkansas minimum wage of $7.50. Gomez said that Wal-Mart acting independently to raise their minimum wage is a strong move.
“The difference between a state-mandated minimum wage and a private business minimum wage is that the effects won’t be detrimental to the state economy like the state-forced minimum wage raises in California,” Gomez said.
