Walmart wants the world to know you can make a really nice living working in its stores.
The company has about 4,700 store managers in the United States and they earn an average of $175,000 a year, Walmart said in social governance report (pdf) Wednesday.
Walmart (WMT), the United States’ largest private employer, has been criticized for its $11 minimum wage—including by its rival Amazon. But Walmart said it has raised its starting wages in the United States by more than 50% over the past three years. Including benefits and bonuses, the average wage for a full-time, hourly worker at Walmart is $14.26 an hour. Walmart’s department managers can also earn up to $24.70 per hour.
Walmart employs more than 1.5 million workers in the United States. Women make up 55% of its workforce, while people of color make up 44%, the company said.
Retail jobs provide “a gateway to upward mobility for millions of people,” said Walmart.
“We’re investing in our associates through wages along with better educational opportunities, benefits and training,” CEO Doug McMillon said in the report.
Walmart has expanded paid-time off and parental leave policies in recent years and introduced Walmart Academy to train workers in advanced skills. As a result, Walmart said its worker turnover is at a five-year low.
Climate change was another area of focus in Walmart’s report.
“We believe climate change is likely to affect national economies and supply chains around the world through potential effects such as lower crop yields, increased health costs and storm damage,” the company said.
Walmart said it aims to reduce its carbon emissions by 18% by 2025 from 2015 levels. The company says it’s on track to reduce 1 billion metric tons of emissions from its global supply chains by 2030.
Tobacco Purchase Age Raised
Walmart will increase the minimum age to buy tobacco products, marking a big moment in the fight against teen nicotine addiction.
The company announced Wednesday it will stop selling tobacco or e-cigarettes products to anyone under the age of 21 in the United States. The changes will take effect July 1 at all American Walmart and Sam’s Club locations.
The company will stop selling sweet-flavored e-cigarettes, which have become popular among teenagers.
The policy shift comes after Walmart received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration for not fully prohibiting kids under 18 from buying tobacco products at its stores. The FDA conducted roughly 13,000 compliance checks since 2010 and said Walmart passed only 93% of them.
“While we have implemented a robust compliance program, we are not satisfied with falling short of our company-wide goal of 100% compliance,” the company wrote. “Even a single sale to a minor is one too many, and we take seriously our responsibilities in this regard.”
In March, the FDA warned several retailers, including Walmart, Kroger and Walgreens, that they were violating rules against selling tobacco products to minors. The agency also labeled the use of e-cigarettes by young people as an “epidemic.”
In response, Walgreens said that its stores will no longer sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21 starting September 1.
The FDA stipulates that tobacco and e-cigarettes may only be sold to people 18 years or older. But several states have raised the age for legal sales to 21, including Illinois, Washington, Hawaii and California.
One in five high school students uses e-cigarettes, according to the surgeon general. Teen e-cigarette usage is soaring: The percentage of high school age children who say they used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days rose by more than 75% between 2017 and 2018, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
In September, the FDA started a campaign to prevent kids from using e-cigarettes. It claims that nicotine use is hazardous to young adults’ health, even when inhaled with an e-ciagrette.
The FDA was expected to ban e-cigarettes last year, but it instead pushed for e-cigarettes to be sold only in parts of stores that are closed-off to teenagers.
