Wal-Mart Pays Its Workers the Least of Any Company

24/7 Wall St. has released its annual analysis of Companies Paying Americans the Least. Wal-Mart was at the top of the list.

According to the report:

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company and private employer, recently raised the minimum wage of its employees to $10 an hour. Since the company’s announcement last year, several of the corporate giant’s competitors, including Target and TJX, announced similar base minimum wages for their employees. A $10 per hour wage is $2.75 an hour higher than the federal minimum wage.

Wal-Mart and its competitors are often criticized for paying their employees low wages and for treating them poorly. Many claim the wage increases are a public relation move and that these companies can afford to pay much more. Even at $10 an hour, these companies’ workers would still be paid far less than the typical American. The average hourly earnings of all U.S. workers is $23.23.

Wal-Mart and Target have raised wages, others in the retail and service industry continue to pay front line workers $9 and $8 an hour. Some often just pay the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the largest American companies paying their workers very low wages.

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Further regarding Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT):

> Workforce: 2,300,000
> Annual revenue: $478.61 billion
> CEO: C. Douglas McMillon
> CEO compensation: $19.81 million

C. Douglas McMillon’s annual compensation of nearly $20 million is one of the largest even among U.S. chief executives. Yet McMillon’s salary pales against the wealth accumulated by the Walton Family, two of whom currently serve on Wal-Mart’s board of directors. With a combined worth of more than $140 billion, the Waltons are the wealthiest family in the United States by a wide margin. Meanwhile, Walmart employs the largest force of low wage workers in the world.

After four consecutive years of revenue gains, Walmart reported a 0.7% decline in revenue in fiscal 2016 compared to fiscal 2015. Walmart’s latest revenue of $482.13 billion still dwarfs the revenue of any other U.S. company.

The methodology:

Based on the methodology used by the National Employment Law Project, an employment advocacy organization, in its 2012 report, “Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage,” 24/7 Wall St. identified the 15 companies that pay employees very low wages. We first identified the three sectors — leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and education and health services — that have the highest percentages of workers that are paid at or below the minimum wage. Within these sectors, we then identified the 21 industries in which the average wage was at most $11.25 an hour — $4 above the federal minimum wage — a widely used threshold for poverty. Finally, we identified the 113 lowest-paying public U.S. companies within those 21 industries by using a Capital IQ Screening tool. The 15 lowest paying companies are the largest employers among the 113 low-paying companies.

Check out all of the companies paying Americans the least, and the full methodology.

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