Walmart to cut starting salaries for some new hires: report

Walmart is paying some new store employees less than they did three months ago, it says The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

According to documents reviewed by the Journal, the retailer changed its pay structure for hourly workers in mid-July.

The change in pay structure allows workers to move between workgroups such as grocery, checkout, storage or digital order fulfillment without impacting pay, the report added, citing documents given to some store employees.

“This will enable better staffing levels across the business,” one of the documents said. More than 50,000 workers received raises because their wages were below the new minimum wage, company filings said.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The company’s shares rose about 1%.

This reported move by Walmart comes as U.S. job growth data in August showed that the labor market slowed in response to the central bank’s sharp interest rate hikes to cool demand in the economy.

Reuters reported in August that Walmart asked some of its 16,000 pharmacists in the U.S. to voluntarily take pay cuts by reducing their hours to reduce costs.

These cuts target pharmacists in higher wage brackets and highlight new pressures at Walmart pharmacies that have led to an influx of shoppers lining up to buy weight-loss drugs.

Walmart then said it would reduce the number of hours it offers some pharmacists due to declining demand for medications over the summer and demands from pharmacists for a better work-life balance.

The retailer had increased wages in recent years to attract employees and address labor shortages sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.