Whoa! Walmart CEO: Most workers earn less than $25,000

In a slideshow presentation to analysts at a conference, President & CEO of Walmart U.S. Bill Simon included the fact that over 475,000 of its associates, what it calls its workers, made more than $25,000 last year, according to ThinkProgress. Given that the company employs about a million hourly workers in its stores, a company spokesperson said, that means about 525,000 make less than that.

On promotions, it says it grants about 160,000 a year, which means about 16 percent of its workforce gets a boost. The spokesperson told ThinkProgress that of those, 40 percent of the promotions go to workers in their first year of employment with the company. About 75,000 people are promoted to full-time each year. Although Simon said in the presentation that the company is “still in majority full-time workforce” and boasted more than 15,000 job openings every day, a recent survey found that over half of its locations were only hiring temporary workers, not full-time positions.

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