Wal-Mart's CEO Explains Why The Company Has Finally Bitten The Bullet On Raising Minimum Wage

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter results Thursday. The company also announced a hike in minimum wage for its part-time and full-time employees, raising it to $9 per hour starting this year in April and $10 per hour from February next year.

Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart President and CEO,was on CNBC to talk about the company’s decision to raise the minimum wages.

Why Are You Raising Minimum Wage Now?

“We want to provide a great customer experience and we want our associates to know how much we value them,” McMillon said. “The changes that we are making includes structural changes in the stores, wage increases, training programs and this company…has always been a people business."

He continued, “It’s a people business today and it will be tomorrow and so our associates their pride in the company, the ownership that they take, those things are vital to running a good retail business and today we are investing in them and we want them to know how important they are.”

Do You Wish You Had Done This Earlier?

“We make wage adjustments all the time. We have just decided this is a really good moment to be more bold in the changes that we are making,” McMillon said. “And again it’s really aimed at just running a really good business, but annually we go through wage and benefit reviews and make adjustments.”

“But right now we want to make sure everybody is crystal clear on how vital our store experience is on to our future and we are making investments in e-commerce too, but we can’t win if we don’t create a situation where digital and physical come together in a way that customers are well served.”