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Walmart is boosting minimum pay across all of its stores and handing out bonuses. The CEO says that it's thanks to tax reform:
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 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.
"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.
The move comes three years after Wal-Mart last announced it was raising wages, spending $1 billion in 2015 to lift starting hourly pay to $9 and then to $10 for most workers the following year. The increase cut into profit and was criticized by some longer-tenured employees as unfair to them. Since then, many states have enacted minimum wage laws, meaning that a "sizable group" of its 4,700 U.S. stores already pay $11 an hour, according to spokesman Kory Lundberg.
Walmart is expanding a "Scan & Go" program from 50 to 150 stores. "Scan & Go" would allow customers to use a smartphone app to scan items and then walk out of the store with them. Kroger is experimenting with a similar "Scan, Bag, Go" program. These are seen as a response to Amazon, which has been trialing delivery of fresh foods and same-day deliveries. Amazon revealed an "Amazon Go" concept brick-and-mortar store in 2016, with no cashiers in sight.
Maybe Walmart's big plan is to give better pay to a dwindling amount of employees.
CEO letter to employees. Also at CNBC and USA Today.
Related: Walmart Wants to Deliver Groceries Directly Into Your Fridge
Walmart to Deploy Shelf-Scanning Robots at 50 Stores
Walmart is Raising Prices Online to Increase in-Store Traffic
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 12 2018, @06:12AM
As already explained, government is not inherently good at betting; having decentralized betting is better, and it's best to allow betting by people who prove themselves good at making bets.
Yes, money is only one aspect of Capitalism; any resource is capital, including for example your labor. Capitalism is merely the philosophy that every interaction (every allocation of capital) should be voluntary, where "voluntary" is defined by a contract in advance of interaction ("voluntary" does not necessarily mean "desirable").
Your mutually profitable interaction between the garbage man and the rich man is already handled by Capitalism; I have no idea what your point is; I have no idea why you think that justifies theft.
Nobody said anything about controlling other people; capitalism is a philosophy that implies resource ownership must be well defined, and I am speaking of that ownership. Your reading of my comment is incorrect.
People actually flourished under monarchies; it's one of the reasons fascism sprung from Marxism: The marxist prediction that a communist revolution would begin in an "advanced" capitalistic society such as Britain or Germany failed; such revolutions never occurred because the people in those countries were experiencing ever improving qualities of life. Instead, a revolution was unexpectedly (and embarrassingly) forced in one of the poorest, most backward, least capitalist parts of the world (Russia), and mainly because the Germans supported Lenin in a bid to get the Tzar off their backs, not because there was some uprising of the downtrodden proletariat.
Ancient Egypt, run by demi-god Kings, was the height of Civilization for thousands of years, and was able to maintain an incredible degree of stability; hitherto, it was probably the longest-running form of civilization in Human history.
Who decides what is reasonable? Capitalism says the market should decide; voluntary exchange should decide.
If you're skeptical, then I suggest your skepticism actually stems from governmental interference in the market, either through direct coercion, or through indirect means such as manipulation of money. A government, being founded on the principle of "do-as-I-say" imposition rather than "do-as-we-already-agreed" cooperation, is inherently anti-Capitalism, and thus distorts the market in distasteful ways.