 will raise entry-level wages for hourly employees to $11 an hour. ){kind=link}
Thanks to massive gains from Donald Trump’s new tax plans, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will raise entry-level wages for hourly employees to $11 an hour.
The increase in the company’s lowest wages will come into place in February. Walmart is also planning on improving maternity leave benefits as well as offering a one-time cash bonus.
The move comes following Trump’s overhaul of the tax system, where corporate tax has been slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have also promised to pass on benefits to employees in the form of pay rises or bonuses.
President and chief executive officer Doug McMillon said Walmart is “in the early stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders,”
“However, some guiding themes are clear and consistent with how we’ve been investing – lower prices for customers, better wages and training for associates and investments in the future of our company, including in technology.
“Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the US.”
The wage increase will affect over one million US hourly workers. However, the increase is still below the $15 an hour that unions say is required to make up for decades of low growth in retail wages.
Walmart’s new plans will cost the company $300 million on top of wage hike plans that are included in 2019’s fiscal plans.
Trump’s changes to the US tax system are some of the biggest ever seen.
“I promised the American people a big, beautiful tax cut for Christmas. With final passage of this legislation, that is exactly what they are getting,” he said in a statement when announcing the changes.