Walmart (WMT) increased the pay of its market managers, who cover several regional stores, following pay increases last year for store managers and hourly employees. That bumped the annual base pay of market managers to between $160,000 and $260,000 compared to the previous range of $130,000 to $260,000.
Invest with Confidence:
- Follow TipRanks' Top Wall Street Analysts to uncover their success rate and average return.
- Join thousands of data-driven investors – Build your Smart Portfolio for personalized insights.
To go along with this, Walmart market managers will also receive up to $100,000 per year in stock grants and annual bonuses of up to 100% of their base pay. Before this, market managers were capped at $75,000 in stock grants and bonuses equal to 90% of base pay.
All told, Walmart market managers can now make between $420,000 and $620,000 with full bonuses compared to the previous limits of $320,000 to $570,000. That’s a year-over-year pay increase of 31.25% on the low end and 8.77% on the high end.
How Does This Compare to Store Manager and Hourly Employee Pay?
Walmart’s last pay increase for store managers was in 2024 when it bumped the average annual salary up 9.4% from $117,000 to $128,000. This also came with a redesigned bonus package that allowed a maximum potential bonus of up to 200% of store managers’ base pay.
Hourly employees haven’t been as lucky. A 2024 pay increase set the new hourly average at over $18 without providing an exact number. Considering the prior average hourly pay was $17.50, this only represented a 2.86% increase for Walmart’s largest employee category at 92% of its staff.
Is WMT Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus for Walmart is Strong Buy based on 26 Buy and two Hold ratings over the last three months. With that comes an average price target of $99.56, a high of $115, and a low of $81. This represents a potential 6.79% upside for WMT shares.
