Wal-Mart publicizes employee bonuses

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wal-Mart made its annual bonus for store employees public for the first time in two decades Thursday, saying that about 80 percent of hourly workers in its stores would split more than a half-billion dollars.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the target of union-backed critics who decry its pay and benefits. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said it was making the bonuses public as a new way to honor its employees, not in response to critics.
Based on the numbers Wal-Mart released, the mathematical average payment would be 651 per worker but Wal-Mart said the individual amounts varied. It declined to provide a range or the specific level of payments, citing competition with other employers.
In the past, the bonus has been 1,000 for full-time workers and up to 500 for part-timers, according to former Wal-Mart managers who declined to be named because the information is competitive.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark declined to provide individual figures but said the payments varied based on two main benchmarks: whether an employee's store met profit and sales targets for the year and whether an employee is full-time or part-time.
Adele Phillips, a full-time administrative assistant at a Wal-Mart store in Moreno Valley, Calif., said her bonus was "substantially over 1,000" and more than last year. She declined to be more specific.
"Most of the stores are having a barbecue or some kind of special lunch today because everybody's worked hard for this," said Phillips, who has worked for Wal-Mart since 1982.