![Walmart employees nationwide, including those who work at the Pea Ridge location at 4965 Highway 90, saw a starting wage increase to $11 per hour last year. This year, Walmart U.S. hourly associates received a share of more than $200 million in cash bonuses, a company press release says. [FILE PHOTO]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-75d650f6-1d00-2d66-e053-0100007ff602-0f19f4ef.jpeg)
PACE — More than 915,000 Walmart U.S. hourly associates across the country received a share of more than $200 million in cash bonuses last week based on their stores’ Quarter 2 performance. The bonuses were included in associate’s Sept. 6 paycheck.
Walmart associates earn quarterly bonuses as part of an overall incentive plan designed to reward associates whose stores achieve sales and customer service goals. In total, associates in Florida earned more than $17.3 million in Quarter 2 bonuses. These bonuses come on the heels of the best performance for Walmart U.S. in more than 10 years — with comp sales growth (excluding fuel) of 4.5 percent — along with an increase in customer traffic of more than two percent.
"We’re proud of our associates here in Florida and their continued commitment to creating a seamless shopping experience for our customers," said Elise Vasquez-Warner, a vice president and regional general manager for Walmart in Florida. "It’s through their hard work that we are seeing strong growth in comp sales and customer traffic. As a company, we’re continuing to re-invent the customer shopping experience, and our associates have played a critical role in helping us in this transformation that leverages both our physical footprint and digital presence. It’s an exciting time to be an associate at Walmart, and we could not be more proud of the team we have in place."
The recent strong sales and traffic figures build on the positive momentum of the U.S. business, which has enabled a positive local impact across Florida through associate bonuses, wage increases and innovation and improvement to stores, among other investments.
In January, Walmart announced plans to increase the starting wage for all hourly associates in the U.S. to at least $11, expand maternity and parental leave benefits, and provide a one-time cash bonus for eligible associates of up to $1,000. Walmart also recently announced a commitment to train and develop 1 million associates over the next five years and introduced a new education benefit for associates, which includes free college credit for on-the-job training and options for associates to earn a college degree without incurring student loan debt.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Walmart associates in Florida receive approximately $17.34 million in cash bonuses