Walmart's Mixed Messages: Wage Increases Followed by Voluntary Pay Cuts for Pharmacists

Walmart Inc WMT is reportedly asking some of its 16,000 pharmacists across the U.S. to take voluntary pay reduction.

The company aims to lower costs by reducing the working hours, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Walmart said that the hours reduction reflects dropoff in demand for drugs during the summer and requests from pharmacists for a better work-life balance.

The company mostly targets pharmacists in higher wage brackets for pay cuts, reflecting the pressures at Walmart pharmacies on high demand for weight-loss drugs that curb profits, as per the report.

In May, Walmart had raised wages for about 3,700 U.S. pharmacists and over 4,000 opticians, bringing their annual average pay to over $140,000 and average hourly pay to more than $22.50/hour, respectively.

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Related: Walmart's Job Cuts To Affect 2,000 Positions In Its E-Commerce Warehouses: Report

Also, earlier this year, Walmart cut the operating hours of its pharmacies by two hours at more than 4,500 U.S. stores due to a shortage of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, as per the report.

This month, Walmart reported second-quarter FY24 sales growth of 5.7% year-on-year to $161.10 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $160.27 billion, and adjusted EPS was $1.84, beating the consensus of $1.70. 

Also Read: Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Upbeat On Walmart's Partnership With Google Parent's Drone Unit

Price Action: WMT shares are trading lower by 0.22% at $159.69 premarket on the last check Wednesday.