Starting with today’s paychecks, South Carolina Walmart employees will receive quarterly store-level profit sharing bonuses, as announced in January, according to a spokesperson for Walmart.
Walmart says its South Carolina associates will receive approximately $10.5 million in combined bonuses along with an annual pay raise for hourly field associates in their March 8 paycheck.
“Our associates’ hard work makes the difference in our stores’ performance,” says Sean Real, regional general manager of Walmart’s South Carolina stores. "Our pay and bonus increases are a way of thanking our people across South Carolina and sharing in success together.”
Walmart says associates earn quarterly bonuses as part of an overall incentive plan designed to reward associates whose stores achieve sales and customer service goals.
Hourly associates in South Carolina earned more than $2.7 million, following fourth quarter sales of 2.6% in the U.S. For the full fiscal year, U.S. associates shared more than $625 million in performance-based bonuses, including more than $20 million shared by South Carolina associates.
In January, Walmart announced plans to increase the starting wage for all hourly associates in the U.S. to at least $11, expand maternity and parental leave benefits, and provide a one-time cash bonus for eligible associates of up to $1,000. A new adoption assistance benefit of $5,000 per child – announced in conjunction with the other changes – went into effect on February 1, according to officials.
Walmart says its recent pay raises are just one part of the company’s local investment and impact.
In South Carolina, the company says it:
- Operates 123 stores.
- Spent $1.6 billion with local suppliers in 2017, supporting 26,000 supplier jobs, according to Dunn & Bradstreet
- Paid more than $86 million in taxes and collected more than $281 million in sales taxes in 2017.
