Walmart is firing more store managers after raising wages

Reuters

Walmart is firing more employees.

• Walmart is cutting two department manager positions.
• The cuts come one month after Walmart said it was removing 3,500 salaried co-managers and adding 1,700 lower-paid assistant store managers.
• Walmart also said last month that it was closing 63 Sam's Club stores.
• Walmart announced in January that it would raise its starting hourly wages to $11, expand parental leave benefits, and give cash bonuses to employees of up to $1,000.

Walmart is kicking off its second round of firings at the store level this year since the retailer announced it was raising wages for US workers.

Walmart is cutting two department manager positions at some of its 4,700 stores, the Wall Street Journal reports. The positions oversee cell phone departments and online grocery pickup areas, according to the Journal.

The new round of cuts comes one month after the retailer said it was removing 3,500 salaried co-managers and adding 1,700 lower-paid assistant store managers. Walmart also said last month that it was closing 63 Sam's Club stores in a move that would impact roughly 9,400 employees.

The eliminations follow Walmart's announcement in January that it would raise its starting hourly wages to $11, expand parental leave benefits, and give cash bonuses of up to $1,000 to employees.

"Retail is changing rapidly and over the past two years, we've been transforming too," a Walmart spokesman told the Journal. "That means creating new roles while consolidating and redesigning others."

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