Here is today’s Frugal Repost. Be sure to watch it, subscribe to our YouTube cannel and answer the Question of the Day in the comments. Also, check out our sponsor at GroceryShopforFREE.com/Jewelry. Enjoy!
Transcript
Walmart Announces Higher Wages for it’s Hourly Associates
Last week, we learned that Wal-Mart was giving the lowest paid of its hourly employees a raise. In a blog post, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said that as of April, the company will pay a minimum of $9 an hour. That is $1.75 more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which has been unchanged for almost six years. Next February, Wal-Mart’s lowest hourly rate will rise to $10. All told, about a half-million Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. will be affected.
The Walmart Newsroom team reached out and provided me with a video where McMillon explained the upcoming changes to the hourly wages and outlined a few other changes, including giving associates a greater degree of control and flexibility over their hours and more company time and resources committed to continued training. What does all this mean for us, the average Walmart shopper? Nothing but good things.
I’m not an economist so I won’t even try to explain why a half million people having more money to spend on the things they need is good for the country’s economy as a whole but we do know that higher wages means that Walmart will be able to attract a higher quality of associate and be able to keep their best associates for longer. Consider their competitor Costco: It has average hourly wages of $20 and a turnover rate of “17% overall and just 6% after one years employment. You heard that right, only 6% of CostCo employees leave that company after 1 year of employment. That’s why it seems CostCo has a better customer service experience, their employees are far more knowledgeable of their policies just by the strength of them having been with the company for longer.
These higher Walmart wages should result is less Associate turnover which will mean we as consumers will soon be dealing with more knowledgeable sales associates. Couple that with Walmart’s commitment to increase the time spent training the average associate on the ins and outs of their job and we could be looking at a significant decrease in the number of rage inducing trips through the check out where the cashier acts like they have never seen a coupon before and you are clearly a theif for trying to use one.
I have included links to the McMillon video and Walmart’s Earnings Release in the transcript that can be found at the link in the description.
Special thanks to Bloomberg View
Target Announces Lower Minimum Orders to Get :fr: Shipping
In other news, Target announced they are lowering the minimum order amount needed to get free shipping from their website from $50 to just $25. This makes their minimum $10 cheaper than Amazon and half of Walmart’s minimum of $50. So if you have something small you need to buy, you might save on shipping by buying it from Target.com.
On The Blog
On the blog Yesterday, we had our Coupon Insert Overview for this week, a very nice coupon for Softsoap hand soap, and a coupon for a dollar off M&M’s. Yum!
Also be sure to check out our sponsor at GroceryShopforFREE.com/Jewelry and check out Paparazzi Jewelry’s line of beautiful Jewelry where every piece is just $5.
Question of the Day
Now here’s your Question of the Day. How much does the shipping cost of something figure into where you will buy something. Is it something you rarely think of at all or is it the deciding factor in where you buy or somewhere in between. Leave your answer in the comments, give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Talk to you soon!.
[…] you remember when Walmart announced they were raising their wages to at least $9 an hour for all their associates? Target has decided to follow suit with all their employees getting at least $9 by […]