Walmart hourly employee says bonus pay plan helps morale, critics say bonus not enough

Dustin Serio, a customer service manager at Walmart Store 100 in Bentonville, is happy the hourly bonuses are back. The five-year Walmart employee said it is a morale builder and is a welcome part of the retailer’s focus on better pay and training.

As an hourly employee who has been with the company more than six months, Serio is eligible for Walmart’s My Share bonus program that recently doled out $201 million to more than 900,000 store workers like Serio in 99% of the retailer’s U.S. stores. The average second quarterly bonus received was $220, according to the retailer. This came on the heels of more than $200 million bonus pay handed out to 99% of Walmart stores in the first quarter, according to Kory Lundberg, Walmart corporate spokesman.

Serio said store workers can check on their “My Share” bonus progress at any time throughout the quarter. He said there are several metrics on which the bonus pay is linked to Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran’s “Clean, Fast and Friendly” scores, and of course meeting overall sales targets.

“I remember a few years back when they were opening all the Neighborhood Markets in Bentonville and that really hurt our store sales. We went several quarters without a bonus,” Serio said. “We look forward to the bonus pay and it does help overall morale in the store when we get them. … In my eyes I see Walmart investing more in its biggest asset, its people. I can’t speak for every store but here we take the clean, fast and friendly program seriously. The overall payout is also based on how many hours you work. It could be as little as 10 a week or 40 hours a week.”

Serio said he was offered a salary management job, but opted out of that now because he has a young daughter at home he needs to spend time with. Most of the jobs in a Walmart store are hourly. The salary positions, while they pay more, require longer hours. That would be jobs as shift managers or assistant managers. But without a college degree, Serio sees Wal-Mart as a good place to move up when the time is right. He has his sights set on a position at the corporate office across the street from Store 100 in five years or so.

Lundberg said the $201 million in quarterly bonus pay was not part of the retailer’s $2.7 billion investment in higher wages and training over last year and this year. When Walmart U.S. announced it would raise the starting pay to $10 per hour in January, the retailer was praised by the media and analysts agreed that getting the store labor counts right and keeping turnover down would be positives for the long term for the retail giant.

But not everyone who works at a Walmart store earns a minimum of $10 per hour. Lundberg said it’s only after the worker completes the Pathways training that they become eligible for the $10 hourly rate and the bonus pay. Pathways began in February and workers have 18 months to finish the training. Serio said the training could be finished on average in 3 to 4 weeks time. He likes the training requirement because workers on the floor can’t learn everything they need to know from a supervisor.

Lundberg said while store turnover is down, on any given day the retailer still has between 15,000 and 50,000 job openings in the company and there are always newer employees who have not completed the Pathway training and are not eligible for the $10 hourly pay rate or bonus pay.

“As we have talked about before our training provides associates with the skills they need to succeed and advance, while creating a better and more consistent customer experience. Skills’ training increases productivity, confidence and knowledge which leads to greater job satisfaction, personal and professional growth. … Skills developed include core retail knowledge, such as merchandising and understanding product labels and soft skills needed for confidence and success in all workplaces, such as: punctuality, teamwork, communication, customer service and on-the-job problem solving,” Lundberg said.

Not everyone is convinced Walmart’s My Share bonus program is a big deal. The union-backed group, Making A Change at Walmart, says it’s not enough.

“Walmart is happy to boast when they decide to give workers a very small share of one of the world’s largest company’s earnings, but when it comes down to facts, Walmart continues to mislead,” said Jess Levin, communications director for MCAW. “What Walmart doesn’t tell you is that in order to get this bonus, workers must complete a months’ long training program that is often implemented with buggy and outdated technology. In fact, in order to also receive the $10 an hour minimum wage that Walmart promotes, completion of this tedious program is required. We hear from Walmart workers every day that have been making less than $10 an hour for months. These workers will also be excluded from the quarterly bonus, and we believe they deserve better.”