As reported by NBC News, Walmart managers now have the ability to earn more than $400,000 a year after the retail giant announced it is offering the ability for some managers to earn $20,000 worth of stock grants starting in April.
Walmart U.S. President and CEO Brian Furner said in a video announcement the amount of the stock grant rewards would be based on the store formats where the managers are employed. Walmart Supercenter managers are eligible to receive the $20,000 limit.
A Walmart spokesperson told NBC News there are about 4,600 Walmart stores, including more than 3,500 Supercenters.
Earlier this month, Walmart said it would increase the average salary for store managers to $128,000 from $117,000.
U.S. Job Market Soars in January
The U.S. labor market shot ahead at a skyrocketing pace last month, adding 353,000 new jobs — the most robust gain in a year and much more than the 185,000 expected.
According to the latest employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), hefty job gains occurred in professional and business services, healthcare, retail trade and social assistance. The unemployment rate held at 3.7%, and has remained under 4% for the past 24 months. Average hourly earnings rose 0.6% on the month, BLS reported, up 4.5% from a year ago.
December’s payroll gains were also revised upward to 333,000 from 216,000, suggesting that higher interest rates haven’t cooled hiring as much as economists had previously thought.
“The report was pretty universally positive,” Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, told the Wall Street Journal. “We’ve seen strong gains on headline payrolls, strong revisions and the unemployment rate staying unchanged. It is showing that the labor market is doing better than previously expected.”
The latest jobs numbers likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting in March, analysts said, as policymakers wait for more evidence that a a recent lower-inflation pattern continues.
UPS to Cut 12,000 Jobs
UPS will be cutting more than 2% of its workforce after reporting a decline in fourth-quarter revenue, according to the Washington Post.
The layoffs will affect 12,000 positions in UPS’s global workforce of roughly 495,000, with about 75% of the job reductions coming in the first half of 2024. Executives said they don’t expect those jobs to return.
UPS executives also cited higher labor costs, reported the Post. UPS last summer reached a deal with the Teamsters that included raises of up to 55% over five years for certain workers. The company has already reduced its head count by about 45,000 since its pandemic peak, largely through attrition and reduced hours, according to CEO Carol Tomé.
Germany Latest Country to Experiment with a Four-Day Work Week
A six-month program starting Feb. 1 will grant a day off every week for hundreds of German employees while keeping them on full pay. Forty-five companies will take part of the pilot, reports Bloomberg.
The study aims to find out if labor unions are right that it could not only leave staff healthier and happier, but also more productive.
“I’m absolutely convinced that investments in ‘new work’ pay off because they increase well-being and motivation, subsequently increasing efficiency,” Sören Fricke, co-founder of event planner Solidsense, one of 45 companies taking part in the pilot, told Bloomberg. “The four-day week, if it works, won’t cost us anything either in the long run.”
Belgium was the first European country to make a four-day-week optional in 2022, though the total weekly hours had to remain the same as in a five-day week.
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