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As part of an ongoing effort to retain and reward employees, Walmart is boosting pay, bonus opportunities and annual stock awards for regional managers nationwide.

Starting Feb. 1, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant increased the compensation packages for about 440 market managers, each of whom are responsible for overseeing about a dozen stores. Following the change, top earners can make between $420,000 and $620,000 annually, according to Walmart.

In addition to raising the position’s salary floor from $130,000 to $160,000, Walmart upped the stock grant for market managers from $75,000 to $100,000. The potential maximum bonus went up, too – from 90% to 100% of base pay.

In a statement, a company spokesperson described Walmart’s market managers as “key for our business and for serving our customers however they shop.”  The midlevel-management position involves long hours and traveling among the stores to check on inventory, supervise staff and handle customer feedback, according to a job description.

“This is the latest in a series of investments in hourly and salaried roles across Walmart U.S. We will continue to raise wages across the business,” Walmart’s media representative added.

With 1.6 million associates and roughly 5,200 retail units in the U.S., Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer. Within New Jersey, the chain has eight market managers responsible for its 62 Walmart stores.

NJ associates can earn …

The move comes a year after Walmart updated the pay and bonus structure for its store managers.

The average store manager’s salary climbed from $117,000 to $128,000, while the total possible bonus is now up to 200% of the position’s salary. The role is also eligible for a stock grant of up to $20,000, bringing the total compensation for top-earning store managers to over $400,000 annually.

Walmart has also announced bonuses of up to $1,000 per year for full- and part-time hourly store associates.

A spokesperson described the changes as a “yearslong journey” that began a decade ago with hourly pay raises.

As of October 2024, the national average hourly wage at Walmart is $17.50. In New Jersey, an associate earns an average of $19.79 per hour.

“We had several wage investments in hourly associates since 2015. Then last year we raised pay for store managers, and we launched a new bonus program for store hourly associates,” they said. “Now we are investing in market managers.”

Meanwhile, business is booming for Walmart. In its most recent earnings release, the chain reported a 5.3% increase in sales at U.S. stores during the third quarter of 2024 compared with the same time a year ago. It also experienced a 22% jump in online sales for the period.

In addition to continuing to attract low-income shoppers, Walmart is seeing more and more higher-income consumers amid high inflation. During Q3, households that earn more than $100,000 represented 75% of Walmart’s share gains.