Starting on Jan. 1, 2015, an increase in minimum wage will be enforced to 21 states of the United States and an additional five states, including Washington D.C, will implement the wage hike in a later date, as cited by CNN Money.
According to Reuters, this minimum wage hike is its first in five years and will force the biggest U.S. private employer Walmart to increase its base pay structure in its 1,434 stores, in compliance with U.S. law. It is said that Walmart has no plans in opposing U.S. administrations' move on increasing its national minimum pay that could go up to $10.10 hence, the company promises to give its workers more opportunity come 2015.
It can be recalled that during Black Friday 2014, numerous employees rallied in more than 1,000 Walmart stores across the United States due to poor treatment of its workers and are calling out for more acceptable working hours and competitive pay structure. It is said that the multinational retail corporation is not giving its part-time employees their full working benefit such health benefits.
According to Chron, a memo was cascaded in December to all Walmart store managers in 21 states and announced that there will be an increase towards pay structure come early January.
Though, some said that even if Walmart increases its base pay to $10.10, the said amount is still not enough and will still be considered as "poverty wage." It can be noted that Walmart workers are asking for $15 an hour pay because some of them are only relying onto public benefits such food stamps.