TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Walmart is said to be notorious for the low wages it pays its workers, but its store managers’ salaries are making eyes pop.
On Wednesday, the retail giant released its 2019 Environmental, Social & Governance Report, a 94-page document detailing the company’s commitments, goals and achievements.
Per the report, the company has raised the average wage for a full-time, hourly associate to $14.26, which comes to $25,000 a year. The range is $11 an hour to $24.70 an hour, according to ABC News. Most of these employees work full time on an average of 37 to 38 hours a week.
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But perhaps the most surprising detail out of the report is the average salary for store managers, which comes to $175,000 a year. That’s more than the median salary for pediatricians and dentists, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg told ABC News their salaries are based on the sales volume and size of the store.
“These stores are often the largest businesses in their communities with up to $100 million in sales and 300 employees,” Lundberg said.
But that doesn’t hold a candle to the $22.8 million raked in by the company’s CEO last year, which is almost 1,000 times the average full-time workers’ salary.
“Walmart started paying more not in response to the tight job market, but in response to competition from its fellow retailers and also because it knew it wasn’t paying enough,” Charles Fishman, the author of “The Wal-Mart Effect,” told ABC News. “Those wages, and that plan is serving Walmart well as the competition tightens up.”
Walmart says its also making improvements on the environmental front with a goal of an 18 percent emissions reduction in its operations by 2025. The company hopes to power 50 percent of its operations with renewable energy by the end of 2025.
