WalMart’s Wage Increase Doesn’t Lure People To Work There

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
March 10, 2015, 6:08 PM GMT+0

Walmart’s announcement to raise wages boosted their consumer perception to their best level in two months, but didn’t seem to change anybody’s mind as a more attractive place to work.

On the other hand, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, both of whom made their own higher wage announcements right after WalMart, saw their already large leads over WalMart as a place consumers would be proud to work, become even bigger. General consumer perception remained either unchanged (TJ Maxx) or slightly improved (Marshall’s).

WalMart has had long-time trouble shaking its negative reputation scores as a brand which consumers would be proud to work for. YouGov BrandIndex’s reputation score can range from 100 to -100 with a zero score equaling a neutral position. Walmart currently has a -9 score, which is on the low end of a slide since New Year’s Day, when their score was -1. Walmart only reached a neutral zero score once in the past 16 months and that was in March 2014.

For TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, both owned by publically-traded TJX Corp., the timing could not have been better: both of their reputation scores had been sliding down several points since mid-January. Once both chains made their own wage announcements, they gained four to five points.

Reputation: WalMart, Marshall's, TJ Maxx





Explore more data & articles