Walmart bumps 15,000 in Pa. to $9/hour
After state's biggest employer socked in $188MM court case
(Revised and updated) Retail giant Walmart, whose 150-plus stores and 47,000 workers in Pennsylvania make it the state's largest corporate employer, says an increase in its starting wage, to $9 an hour, will boost average hourly pay at Walmarts in the state to $12.98/hour.
Before the increase, Walmart's average pay in the state was $12.87 an hour for fulltimers, or $11.28 combining fulltimers and parttimers, the company says (UPDATING previous info from a past news story.) With the increase, 15,226 Walmart workers in Pa. who were paid under $9/hour will get increases starting April 23, for work beginning the week of April 4. Most were already making more than $8.50. Another 1,112 slightly higher-paid workers will also get bumped a little higher, according to Bill Wertz, Walmart spokesman.
In December, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Walmart to pay $188 million the company had illegally withheld from 188,000 workers in 1998-2005. Walmart had fought that case with court appeals since an initial 2008 jury decision. Read the Pa. Supreme Court decision against Walmart here.
Walmart says it may make bigger pay increases: "By February 2016 all current associates will earn at least $10 per hour," the company said in a statement. The store chain also promised "increased scheduling flexibility and control, and new training opportunities for continued growth and advancement beyond entry-level jobs," and is considering raising the starting wage for some department managers in each of the next two years.