Wal-Mart pays very little money to its low-skill floor employees, barely above the current minimum wage. And well below the “Fight for $15” minimum wage movement has been recently demonstrating around major American cities.
Still Wal-Mart pays big bucks to recruit and retain skilled employees who will formulate the company’s strategy, market its brand, run its operations, and help it compete effectively against Amazon.com.
Wal-Mart, for instance, pays $176,000 for market managers and $200,000 for product managers—5 to 7 times the annual minimum wage the “Fight for $15” wage movement advocates.
That’s according to a recent Glassdoor survey. Wal-Mart also pays big bucks to recruit talent for its eCommerce division, where starting salaries can be as high as $149,000 a year.
That places Walmart in the list of the 25 highest paying companies in America in 2016, close to its on-line competitor, Amazon.com.
| Company | Median Total Compensation | Median Base Salary |
| Walmart (NYSE:WMT) | $149,000 | $126,000 |
| Amazon.com | $150.100 | $138,700 |
Source: Glassdoor
Faced with sluggish sales and competition from retailers, Wal-Mart’s current leadership has made the expansion of its eCommerce presence a top priority of its business strategy, buying up online search technologies and expanding its warehouse base. In 2013, for instance, Wal-Mart acquired @WalmartLabs, an e-commerce technology arm, and acquired a number of start-ups — Torbit, a cloud-based website accelerator service; Inkiru, a predictive intelligence platform; OneOps, a cloud based automation technology; Tasty Labs; and Adchemy, a search engine marketer.
Amazon.com versus Wal-Mart Stores 12/2/16
| Company | Amazon.com | Wal-Mart Stores |
| Forward PE | 83.24 | 16.32 |
| Margin | 1.64% | 2.98% |
| Operating Margin | 3.16% | 4.79% |
| Qrtly Revenue Growth | 29.02% | 0.70% |
| Revenue (ttm) | 127.99B | 484.60B |
Source: Finance.Yahoo.com
Amazon.com versus Wal-Mart Stores 4/20/16
| Company | Amazon.com | Wal-Mart Stores |
| Forward PE | 72.42 | 15.93 |
| Margin | 0.56% | 3.05% |
| Operating Margin | 2.01% | 5.00% |
| Qrtly Revenue Growth | 21.90% | 1.40% |
| Revenue (ttm) | 107.01B | 482.13B |
Source: Finance.Yahoo.com
Still Wal-Mart has yet to catch up with Amazon in key metrics. In the meantime, the company is willing to pay big bucks for labor, provided that this labor has the right skill to help it build and market its brand and compete effectively.
