- Walmart is paying out bonuses to US hourly employees and hiring 150,000 workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Walmart will pay $150 to part-time hourly employees and $300 to full-time hourly employees.
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Walmart is paying a one-time cash bonus to its hourly workers in the US and hiring 150,000 employees amid the coronavirus pandemic, the company said late Thursday.
The company will pay $300 to full-time employees and $150 to part-time employees for a total payout of more than $365 million. Hourly employees in stores, clubs, supply chain centers, and offices will qualify. The bonuses will pay out on April 2. In addition, Walmart plans to pay out a separate quarterly bonus to employees 30 days earlier than scheduled.
The bonuses are meant to provide workers with "some extra cash at a time when many Americans are probably worried about where their next paycheck is coming from," Walmart executive vice president Dan Bartlett said in a call with media on Thursday.
"They're doing Herculean work in our stores and serving customers in frankly a tense environment," Bartlett said of Walmart's store employees.
Walmart also announced Thursday that it will hire 150,000 new employees through the end of May to work in stores, clubs, distribution centers, and fulfillment centers. The roles will initially be temporary, but many will convert to permanent roles over time, the company said.
Walmart said it plans to speed up the hiring process for key roles including cashiers and stockers, by cutting the process from an average of two weeks to 24 hours. Candidates can apply at careers.walmart.com.
Bartlett said he hoped the hiring spree "contributes a bit to easing the pain of this broader economic downturn that the coronavirus is causing."
"We belive there are multiple industries seeing acute pain and layoffs due to [coronavirus] already," Bartlett said.
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