Walmart to pay bonuses to hourly workers

Many part-time and full-time Walmart employees will be getting bonuses.

The company announced Wednesday that 700,000 employees would be eligible for the bonus money, Reuters reported. Pharmacy and Vision Center employees are also eligible for the extra pay after Walmart made the move thanks to feedback from workers.

“It’s important that we are competitive on base wages,” CEO John Furner told reporters.

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A worker must have been employed by Walmart for a year to get the bonus. The amount of money will be based on whether a store meets performance targets, Reuters reported. It also is based on how long an employee has worked for Walmart, the company said.

They have the potential to earn up to a bonus of $1,000 yearly, Walmart said in a news release.

A worker who has been with Walmart for one to five years will be eligible for a maximum of $350. A 20-year full-time employee can get up to $1,000, The Associated Press reported.

The retailer has about 5,000 stores in the U.S. with 1.7 million employees.

Walmart’s minimum starting wage is $14, Reuters reported. The company said its average hourly pay is nearly $18.

Earlier this year Furner announced that store managers would be getting company stocks as part of their annual benefits. Managers at the chain’s largest stores would get $20,000 in stock annually, USA Today reported.

“A Walmart store manager is running a multimillion dollar business and managing hundreds of people,” Furner said in a LinkedIn post in January. “And it’s a far more complex job today than when I managed a store. We ask our managers to own their roles and act like owners. And now, they’ll literally be owners

It also raised the base salary for managers on Feb. 1, increasing it from $117,000 to $128,000 a year with a potential annual bonus of 200%, according to USA Today .

Walmart is also starting a program where associates can become technicians with jobs that pay between $19 and $45 an hour. The technicians will work in facilities maintenance, refrigeration and HVAC positions.

The company wants to increase the number of technicians from 450 to about 2,000 over the next two years, the AP reported.