The promise of Walmart Inc. to raise its average hourly wage above $ 15 comes amid a debate in Washington over whether the federal minimum wage should be more than doubled.
The wholesaler’s goal is politically important because it is in line with President Biden’s proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $ 15 per hour from the $ 7.25 per hour that has existed for 11 years. It also comes from the country’s largest private employer, with stores in various labor markets across the country.
But Walmart’s announcement Thursday is not an endorsement of Mr. Pray not, which is part of a $ 1.9 billion Covid-19 assistance proposal by Democrats in Congress that is expected to pass later this month. The company supports a higher federal minimum wage, but not $ 15 per hour. Although he plans to increase the amount for 425,000 hourly workers from an average of more than $ 14 in January 2020, the minimum starting wage will remain at $ 11 per hour.
Yet the move of the company could play into both sides of the federal debate over minimum wage.
Democrats who Mr. Biden’s wage plan support could argue that Walmart’s wage increases are proof that employers can afford wage increases, despite the pandemic’s economic disruptions, economists and analysts say. Republicans opposing the doubling of the federal pay floor are likely to see it as an example of effective free market forces, and argue the government does not need to intervene.