Dive Brief:
- Walmart is adding $25,000 in annual stock grants to its compensation package for market managers, the company confirmed to Retail Dive on Friday. The change makes the managers eligible for $100,000 in stock grants annually.
- The company also raised the minimum salary for market managers, who typically oversee about a dozen stores and store managers, from $130,000 to $160,000. The upper end of the pay range remains $260,000. Additionally, these managers may now earn an annual bonus of up to 100% of their salary — that’s an increase from 90% previously.
- With the recent stock grant and bonus potential adjustments, the total annual compensation package for Walmart’s market managers may now reach $620,000.
Dive Insight:
Walmart’s increase to market manager salaries is one of several substantial pay changes in the last 12 months that reflect the importance each group has on the company’s overall performance and profitability.
In the last year, the company introduced a bonus program for full-time and part-time hourly store associates, boosted store manager pay and now, has also increased the compensation packages for market managers. The company said all of its salary investments are part of an ongoing process that began a decade ago.
The pay changes reflect the importance the roles play in supporting the company’s growth, the company said. The market manager position, “which oversees multiple stores — is key for our business and for serving our customers however they shop,” the company said in a statement. “This is the latest in a series of investments in hourly and salaried roles across Walmart.”
Each of Walmart’s approximately 4,600 U.S. stores has a store manager. Each market manager, in turn, oversees about a dozen stores and their store managers. Walmart said it has about 440 market managers in the U.S.
Walmart said most of its market manager salaries already fall within the newly announced pay range. The compensation changes all take effect at the start of the company’s 2026 fiscal year. That means the 100% bonus potential will be reflected in March and the potential $100,000 stock grants will be awarded in April, the company said.
These managers “are critical to Walmart. They’re running very big businesses, often serving millions of customers every week,” GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said via email. “Walmart needs good people in these roles to deliver on its ambitions and to drive growth. The fact they’re willing to pay a lot shows the importance of the position and the need to compensate well in what remains a tight job market.”
Last January, Walmart updated its store manager pay and bonus structure. The changes boosted the average store manager salary to $128,000, up from $117,000, and increased annual bonuses to up to 200% of their salary.
Walmart also added $20,000 in stock grants to its Supercenter store manager compensation packages, meaning people in that role could potentially earn over $400,000 annually. Then, in June, the company said full and part-time hourly store associates were now eligible for bonuses of up to $1,000 per year.
The retailer’s continued pay investments come as Walmart’s third-quarter consolidated revenue rose 5.5% from a year ago to $169.6 billion, the retailer reported in November. U.S. net sales rose to nearly $115 billion in Q3, up about 5% from the prior year. The company also said its e-commerce sales rose 27% globally and 22% in the U.S. It attributed part of that growth to store-fulfilled pickup and delivery, as well as the company’s third-party marketplace.