Wal-Mart Raises Hourly Wage to $11 in Wake of Tax Overhaul

[rogue06]

Wal-Mart Raises Hourly Wage to $11 in Wake of Tax Overhaul

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is boosting its starting hourly wage to $11 and delivering bonuses to employees, capitalizing on the U.S. tax overhaul to stay competitive in a tightening labor market.

The increase takes effect next month and will cost $300 million on top of annual wage hikes that were already planned, the world’s largest retailer said Thursday. The one-time bonus of up to $1,000 is based on seniority and will amount to an additional $400 million. The company is also expanding its maternity and parental leave policy and adding an adoption benefit.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, has fought in recent years to improve its image in the U.S., as it weathered criticism over its treatment of employees. With the wage increase and bonus payment, the company seeks to even its pay gap with resurgent rival Target Corp., while simultaneously sending a high-profile thank you to the U.S. government for slashing the corporate tax rate.

“Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.,” Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said in the statement.

That $2/hr raise and bonuses makes Wal-Mart the 81st company to provide raises and bonuses as a direct result of the tax bill that was passed and signed into law in December. 81 in less than a month.

The same tax bill that Nancy Pelosi^[1] proclaimed would result in "Armageddon." That she declared was "the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress" and a "monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class."

Over in the Senate Chuck Schumer intoned that the tax cut was "an absolute disgrace," "a cynical one-two gut punch to the middle class," a "stunning deception" and is "so, so bad."

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Treasury and Obama's director of the National Economic Council grimly warned that the tax bill would kill 10,000 people each year and California's "Governor Moonbeam" (Jerry Brown) snarled that the tax cut bill was "evil in the extreme."

Meanwhile, in the real world, millions of Middle and Working Class Americans are seeing substantial pay increases and bonuses thanks to the tax cut. Pelosi is now grumbling that these raises and bonuses are "pathetic.^[2]" Then again she also insisted that a large number of Americans out of work and collecting unemployment and food stamps was great for the economy.











1. who plans on celebrating Martin Luther King Day protesting the tax cut.

2. I wonder how many people would snub a $2/hr raise plus up to a $1000 bonus because it is "pathetic."

[rogue06]

The true test is to see how many companies that got the tax break will translate the money to wage and benefit increases. Have any other companies announced they’d do this besides Walmart?

81 so far. In less than a month since the bill was signed into law.

[rogue06]

Sorry I had to spend the bonus money on rum and bacon.

Wait. Was that supposed to be for everybody? Sorry about that. *burp*

[Zymologist]

That $2/hr raise and bonuses makes Wal-Mart the 81st company to provide raises and bonuses as a direct result of the tax bill that was passed and signed into law in December. 81 in less than a month.

The same tax bill that Nancy Pelosi^[1] proclaimed would result in "Armageddon." That she declared was "the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress" and a "monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class."

Over in the Senate Chuck Schumer intoned that the tax cut was "an absolute disgrace," "a cynical one-two gut punch to the middle class," a "stunning deception" and is "so, so bad."

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Treasury and Obama's director of the National Economic Council grimly warned that the tax bill would kill 10,000 people each year and California's "Governor Moonbeam" (Jerry Brown) snarled that the tax cut bill was "evil in the extreme."

Meanwhile, in the real world, millions of Middle and Working Class Americans are seeing substantial pay increases and bonuses thanks to the tax cut. Pelosi is now grumbling that these raises and bonuses are "pathetic.^[2]" Then again she also insisted that a large number of Americans out of work and collecting unemployment and food stamps was great for the economy.











1. who plans on celebrating Martin Luther King Day protesting the tax cut.

2. I wonder how many people would snub a $2/hr raise plus up to a $1000 bonus because it is "pathetic."

you have died.jpg

Mega-hyperbole TO THE MAX!!!!!

[Starlight]

Wal-Mart Raises Hourly Wage to $11 in Wake of Tax Overhaul

Hmm, the gullibility is strong with you.

Walmart uses bonus announcement to distract from unannounced layoffs:

Thursday morning, Walmart had a flashy announcement: Thanks to corporate tax cuts, it was giving its employees bonuses of up to $1,000....

This announcement... was much more complicated than it first sounds. Walmart employees are eligible for the $1,000 bonus only if they’ve worked at the company for 20 years. Most Walmart employees, of course, haven’t worked there that long...

But now it appears the announcement was timed carefully to cover for thousands of unannounced layoffs.

Business Insider reports that today, Walmart is abruptly closing numerous Sam’s Clubs stores across the United States. In some cases “employees were not informed of the closures prior to showing up to work on Thursday” and “learned that their store would be closing when they found the store’s doors locked and a notice announcing the closure.”

Walmart to raise starting hourly wage to $11:

Walmart is raising its starting hourly wage from $9 to $11 and expanding its parental leave benefits, the company announced Thursday...

Economists and professors... said Walmart had little choice but to raise its wages if it wanted to stay competitive with peers like Target, which raised its hourly starting wage to $11 late last year, with plans to increase it to $15 by 2020. The national unemployment rate at a 17-year low, making it increasingly difficult to for companies to attract — and keep — workers.

“I would’ve been astounded if they hadn’t raised wages,” said Thomas Kochan, at professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “What’s impossible to sort out is how much of this is because of savings from the tax cuts, and how much is because of pressure they’re receiving from employees and labor groups.”...

Walmart said the wage increases would add about $300 million in expenses to its budget for the next fiscal year. The one-time cash bonuses, meanwhile, will cost the company about $400 million, or about 0.08 percent of its annual revenue... “The fact is that Walmart is not permanently investing the estimated $2 billion it will receive annually from Trump’s tax giveaway to its workers – it is keeping almost all of it... While pay raises are usually a good thing, this is nothing but another public relations stunt from Walmart to distract from the reality that they are laying off thousands of workers and the ones who remain will continue to receive low wages.”

This is why I don't take the 'running list' you posted in this thread seriously. How many of those companies are just pretending to have Totally Raised Wages Because Of The Tax Bill for PR purposes, either to distract from layoffs and closures or from moving jobs to mexico or to try and get political capital out of small wage increases they were already going to give? Probably all of them.

[Cow Poke]

Hmm, the gullibility is strong with you.

Walmart uses bonus announcement to distract from unannounced layoffs:

In a shocking development, a pinko commie leftist website doesn't like the tax plan. Film at 11.

[Starlight]

a pinko commie leftist website

doesn't like the tax plan.

Few do. It was polling around 20% approval.


I would remind the gullible here that there is (unfortunately) no law that requires corporate PR statements to actually be truthful. In fact, there is a law requiring the maximization of profits for the shareholders, so it is quite possible that this results in a legal obligation to lie in PR statements about what the company is doing and why it is doing it to achieve political favor and/or publicity and/or raise share prices. The time when the company is legally required to be truthful is in their annual report to shareholders, and it is always amusing to observe when those blatantly contradict PR statements made to the general public about what the company is doing and why.

[Cow Poke]

Few do. It was polling around 20% approval.

Give it time.

Economists Credit Trump as Tailwind for U.S. Growth, Hiring and Stocks

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal say President Donald Trump has had generally positive effects on U.S. economic growth, hiring and the performance of the stock market during his first year in office.

The professional forecasters also predicted 2018 would see solid growth and a continued decline in the jobless rate. One factor: the tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump in December, which most economists say will boost the economy for several years at least.
More From the Survey

More broadly, most forecasters surveyed by the Journal suggested Mr. Trump’s election deserves at least some credit for the economy’s recent strength.

Asked to rate Mr. Trump’s policies and actions to date, a majority of economists said he had been somewhat or strongly positive for job creation, gross domestic product growth and the stock market. Most also said he had been either neutral or positive for the country’s long-term growth trajectory, while his influence on financial stability was seen as largely neutral.

[One Bad Pig]

The only company of which I'm aware which sits on large piles of cash is the ever-trendy Apple. Wally World has plenty of options for how to deal with the tax cut; propping up unprofitable stores is likely not one they will use. Wage increases and price reductions will probably be the main result, both of which will make the corporation more competitive.

[Cow Poke]

The only company of which I'm aware which sits on large piles of cash is the ever-trendy Apple. Wally World has plenty of options for how to deal with the tax cut; propping up unprofitable stores is likely not one they will use. Wage increases and price reductions will probably be the main result, both of which will make the corporation more competitive.

I think that's a concept totally lost on the left - Walmart is in business to make money. When there is a store that is underperforming, they have the option to close it and move their resources elsewhere. A Ginormous company like Walmart will always be testing markets, adjusting, hiring and laying off. That doesn't change the fact that those still employed get raises and bonuses, and Walmart continues to expand.

[whag]

That $2/hr raise and bonuses makes Wal-Mart the 81st company to provide raises and bonuses as a direct result of the tax bill that was passed and signed into law in December. 81 in less than a month.

The same tax bill that Nancy Pelosi^[1] proclaimed would result in "Armageddon." That she declared was "the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress" and a "monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class."

Over in the Senate Chuck Schumer intoned that the tax cut was "an absolute disgrace," "a cynical one-two gut punch to the middle class," a "stunning deception" and is "so, so bad."

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Treasury and Obama's director of the National Economic Council grimly warned that the tax bill would kill 10,000 people each year and California's "Governor Moonbeam" (Jerry Brown) snarled that the tax cut bill was "evil in the extreme."

Meanwhile, in the real world, millions of Middle and Working Class Americans are seeing substantial pay increases and bonuses thanks to the tax cut. Pelosi is now grumbling that these raises and bonuses are "pathetic.^[2]" Then again she also insisted that a large number of Americans out of work and collecting unemployment and food stamps was great for the economy.











1. who plans on celebrating Martin Luther King Day protesting the tax cut.

2. I wonder how many people would snub a $2/hr raise plus up to a $1000 bonus because it is "pathetic."

Thanks, rogue. I was just asking because the $4B company I work for hasn’t announced bonuses or pay raises....yet. *crosses fingers*

[Cow Poke]

Thanks, rogue. I was just asking because the $4B company I work for hasn’t announced bonuses or pay raises....yet. *crosses fingers*

What am I, chopped liver?

[whag]

What am I, chopped liver?

You’re the biggest tube of Braunshweiger. You put the ‘wurst in liverwurst.

7B60D135-2137-4B5A-9D0E-CFC2DCDA704D.jpeg

[KingsGambit]

I applaud Walmart for this decision. I worked overnights there a couple summers ago while in between jobs and I knew there were some of us who were strugglng.

[One Bad Pig]

You’re the biggest tube of Braunshweiger. You put the ‘wurst in liverwurst.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25914[/ATTACH]

If you're going to paste a pic with the correct spelling, you could at least use that to spell it correctly yourself.