Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What average hourly wage did Walmart report for 2024 or 2025?
Executive summary
Walmart reported an average hourly wage for its U.S. frontline hourly associates around $17.50 in early 2024, and then signaled increases to roughly $18 (or “close to $18”) as raises took effect in early 2024 and continued communications through 2024–2025 [1] [2] [3]. Independent pay surveys and job sites show a wide range of reported averages — from roughly $15 to $16 for some divisions or crowd‑sourced aggregates to much higher averages when corporate‑level salaried employees are included — underscoring that “average” depends on which group and data source you use [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. Walmart’s own headline figures: $17.50 → about $18
Walmart publicly cited an average hourly wage of $17.50 per hour for frontline U.S. associates in its 2024 communications and corporate profiles [1] [8]. By announcements of raises to take effect in early 2024, the company and major outlets reported that the U.S. average hourly wage for hourly workers would climb to about $18 — phrased variously as “$18,” “more than $18.00,” or “close to $18” [2] [9] [3].
2. Timing matters: incremental raises and wording differences
Walmart’s stated averages shifted in public statements across 2023–2025. Earlier rounds emphasized “more than $17.50” (2023–early 2024), and subsequent company material and press coverage described the average as moving “to $18,” “more than $18.00,” or “close to $18” as raises and bonuses were rolled out in 2024 and discussed in 2025 [10] [2] [9] [3]. Small wording differences — “at least,” “more than,” and “close to” — reflect that Walmart reports an evolving, company‑wide average rather than a static, single rate for all workers [1] [3].
3. Third‑party and role‑specific surveys show wide variation
Crowd‑sourced salary sites and third‑party data often report lower or different averages than Walmart’s headline number because they capture particular job mixes (e.g., e‑commerce, hourly retail roles, or corporate employees). PayScale and Zippia reported average hourly figures in the mid‑teens (about $15.5–$16) for specific Walmart entities or overall hourly pay in 2025, while Glassdoor and Indeed show broad ranges depending on role and location [4] [5] [11] [12] [6]. These differences indicate that the company average (frontline associates) can diverge from averages calculated across all employees or particular subsets [12] [4].
4. What “average hourly wage” does — and doesn’t — tell you
An “average hourly wage” reported by Walmart reflects a weighted mean across many roles, regions and full‑ vs part‑time statuses; it can mask large within‑company disparities. Reporting notes that some back‑of‑house roles or new hires can earn substantially less than the corporate headline, while other roles (specialized hourly or salaried positions converted to hourly equivalents) push the average up [8] [13]. Media coverage and analysts explicitly caution that headline averages don’t describe the median worker’s schedule or earnings after benefits, hours and locality are considered [8] [14].
5. Conflicting data points and why they exist
Differences across sources stem from (a) which employee population is measured (frontline store associates vs. companywide employees), (b) the timing of pay changes (Walmart announced phased raises and bonuses across 2023–2025), and (c) data collection methods (company reporting vs. crowd‑sourced surveys vs. third‑party estimators) [3] [2] [5] [4]. For example, Walmart’s corporate pages and press releases emphasize “close to $18” for frontline associates, while PayScale and Zippia report lower averages derived from user‑submitted pay or role‑specific samples [3] [5] [6].
6. How journalists and researchers treat these numbers
Recent news outlets repeated Walmart’s corporate headline while noting variability — NBC and Axios relayed the company’s shift from $17.50 toward $18 and described the planned pay increases going into effect in early 2024 [9] [2]. Other reporting and analysis pointed out that the $17.50–$18 figure can equate to different annual pay outcomes depending on hours worked and job classification, and that critics still call for higher wages to match living costs [8] [1].
7. Bottom line and what to watch next
If you want the figure Walmart itself publicized for frontline U.S. hourly associates in the 2024–2025 window, use $17.50 as the 2024 baseline and “about $18” or “close to $18” for the post‑raise communications [1] [2] [3]. If you need a narrower estimate for a particular role (cashier, stocker, e‑commerce fulfilment) or median versus mean measures, consult role‑level survey data (PayScale, Indeed, Glassdoor) because available reporting shows meaningful variation depending on the dataset chosen [5] [12] [11].
Limitations: available sources do not provide a single unified 2025 corporate “exact” hourly average beyond the company’s rounded language, and third‑party datasets diverge based on methodology [3] [4] [5].