Looks like the rumor I reported on yesterday turned out to have some merit.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is raising starting pay at about a third of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores by an average 6 percent and introducing wage caps for the first time on each type of job in all stores, the company said Monday.
The nation’s largest private employer said the changes would help it remain competitive with other retailers and meet a need for workers and managers as it continues to expand.
More from the Associated Press.
According to their release, they are putting a hard cap on wages within different pay scales, but they are balancing that with a raise in wages in a third of stores. Still sounds like a bottom-line motivated decision, as this brings down the theoretical average hourly wage across the country. I’m sure it is a smart move for the people who crunch the numbers, but I’m not sure I want to go to a Wal-Mart where the employees are even more disgruntled than they currently are.
Interesting to see what the short term employee reaction will be for this. I don’t foresee it going over well, no matter what the corporate spin is. I guess we won’t know the long term ramifications of this move until, well, the long term.