Walmart employees in Connecticut received bonuses on Thursday after the retail behemoth posted a 4.2 percent increase in fourth-quarter sales, the company said.
The world’s largest retailer said it split $1.3 million in one-time payments among 8,890 part- and full-time workers in Connecticut.Â
Nationally, more than 912,000 Walmart employees shared almost $207 million in cash bonuses on Thursday. The retailer said it gave nearly $800 million in performance-based bonuses in 2018, with more than $5.7 million of that total going to Connecticut associates.
Walmart last month posted fourth-quarter net income of $3.7 billion, or $1.27 a diluted share, up from $2.2 billion, or 73 cents a diluted share, in the year-ago period. Total sales were about $140.5 billion.
The bonuses come as retailers across the country face pressure to increase their minimum wages. In Connecticut, there are several bills that would gradually increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Following federal tax reforms, which lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate, Walmart, the nation’s largest private-sector employer, more than a year ago raised its minimum hourly wage to $11 and gave out one-time bonuses of up to $1,000.
In October, Amazon announced a $15-an-hour minimum wage for all part- and full-time U.S. workers. The change was aimed at benefiting more than 250,000 employees nationwide, in addition to over 100,000 seasonal workers.
