Sam’s Club employees review bills after a customer’s purchase while other shoppers wait in line to pay for purchases during the shopping season, “The Good End” (the good weekend), at a store Sam’s Club, as a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 10, 2020.
Henry Romero | Reuters
Sam’s Club said Tuesday it will raise its minimum wage from $ 11 to $ 15 later this month.
With the move, the member-based warehouse club will now have a significantly higher starting salary than its parent company, Walmart, where the minimum hourly wage has recently risen from $ 11 to $ 12. Salary increases at Sam’s Club and Walmart are effective September 25th.
Sam’s Club has about 600 stores and about 100,000 employees. In a note sent to employees, Sam’s Club CEO Kath McLay said most employees (about 95%) already earn at least $ 15 an hour. However, he said the retailer will bring all hourly workers to this level and increase the salary for other functions.
In the future, McLay said Sam’s Club members can earn up to $ 34 per hour, an increase over the maximum hourly wage of $ 29.70 they could earn earlier, depending on location. He said the average hourly rate will be more than $ 17.
“We want you to be paid competitively, whether you’ve found your destination job as a forklift operator, a meat cutter or a cake decorator, or you’re just starting out and want to go up. the ladder, ”he said. “We want you to know that Sam’s Club is a place where you have opportunities to promote yourself, get a degree or change direction.”
More than 34% of Sam’s Club’s hourly workers will get a raise, by the end of September, as various functions will get a pay raise, according to the company. For example, hourly payments for computer contacts will now start at $ 19 per hour versus the previous $ 18, forklift drivers will start at $ 17 instead of $ 15, and personal buyers will earn at least $ 16 instead of $ 15.
In recent months, CVS Health retailers at Target have offered more pay and new benefits as they try to recruit and retain employees in a shrinking job market, where job offers exceed the number of unemployed Americans. They also need to cover more supply chain-related functions, from goods handlers to online order fillers, as consumers spend the money they save during the pandemic and buy in new ways.
Sam’s Club’s parent company, Walmart, is the largest private employer in the country, with nearly 1.6 million employees. Walmart and Sam’s Club have been behind competitors like Target and Amazon who already pay all employees at least $ 15 an hour. Costco, one of Sam’s Club’s biggest rivals, raised its minimum wage to $ 16 an hour earlier this year.
Sam’s Club has seen an increase in sales during the pandemic. Its members have reached an all-time high in recent quarters, although the company does not disclose how many members it has.
It has launched new technology-based features to differentiate itself from Costco. For example, Sam’s Club launched a new application-based option that allows shoppers in certain stores to take home some items they buy and send others, such as TVs, directly to their doors, all in a single transaction. .