Walmart, which just raised its minimum wage, announces plans to cut employee hours

Walmart—which in April announced it was installing a company-wide minimum wage of $9, with plans to raise the minimum wage to $10 in February—announced this week that it will reduce employee hours at some stores to cut costs, Sarah Nassauer reports for The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman said stores that will cut hours are those that have been scheduling more hours than they have been allocated. Walmart, a staple in rural areas, has 4,600 stores in the U.S.

Officials, who said some stores increased hours during peak times to move shoppers quickly through checkout lines, said "those efforts contributed to a 15 percent drop in second-quarter net income compared with a year earlier," Nassauer writes. "Store managers being told to cut back have been exceeding those already expanded employee hours . . . In the latest quarter, Wal-Mart also lowered its profit target for the rest of the year despite gains in sales and shopper traffic. Shares of the retailer are down 25 percent so far this year." (Read more)