How Rich Is The Walmart CEO And What's The Average Pay Of Its Employees?

In February, news broke that Walmart would finally raise its wages. Previously, according to a piece by ABC News in 2019, the average hourly wage made by Walmart employees was $14.25, with salaries ranging from $11 an hour to $24.70. When taking into account that a full-time Walmart employee's baseline working schedule consists of 34 hours a week, the average annual salary was around $25,000.

TheStreet reported Walmart has raised the salary for most of its 425,000 workers, specifically the ones involved in their digital and stocking work, from $13 to $19 an hour, depending on the location. However, Business Insider pointed out that the minimum wage at Walmart remains at $11, which is still more than the federally mandated one of $7.25. Of course, this pay rise lags behind the recent minimum wage hikes by Amazon and Costco to $15 and $16 an hour respectively.

Of course, the pay raise is only for a specific subsection of the workers. "Most of us cashiers along with hundreds of thousands of others are once again left out of the raises Walmart is giving," Mendy Hughes, a cashier at Walmart told CBS. To make matters worse, Hughes said that "being a cashier in the COVID-19 pandemic is among the most dangerous jobs there is." Her wage after 11 years at the company is $11.85 an hour, barely above the unchanged minimum. 

Even before the pandemic, Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, had it pretty good. In April 2019, CNN reported that McMillon's compensation for being Walmart's CEO in 2018 was $24 million, $1.3 million coming from a salary, $15.6 million from stock awards, and a further $6.7 million from other incentives. The piece also points out that this was 1,076 times higher than the average salary under him, though the gap had lessened by 9 percent due to higher wages.

Currently, Wealthy Persons estimates that his net worth hangs at about $120 million and lists his salary as $4.8 million.

The pandemic no doubt helped in regards to his salary and future compensation as Walmart was one of the clear winners of the catastrophe, as Barron's writes. Its stocks "gained 21.3 percent in 2020." This, of course, is due to Walmart's position as one of the central stores for necessities. As Mendy Hughes makes clear, though, some think that they should be awarded better for ensuring the necessities have been met.