At major rural employer Walmart, many workers earn below the poverty line as store managers average $175,000 a year

Though Walmart managers make healthy salaries, many hourly workers still have a hard time making ends meet, Abha Bhattarai reports for The Washington Post.

"Walmart said its store managers now average $175,000 a year, while its full-time hourly worker average $14.26 an hour," Bhattarai writes. "Average hourly pay of $14.26 equals about $25,200 a year for 34-hour weeks, which is considered full time at Walmart. That is below the national poverty line for a family of four."

Walmart posted $129 billion in profits in 2018. With 1.5 million U.S. employees, it is one of the nation's largest employers, especially in rural areas, and is the leading employer in 22 states (most of them in the Midwest and South). But with the national unemployment rate at its lowest level since 1969, Walmart is struggling to hire and keep employees, especially where higher-paying competitors like Target and Costco operate, Bhattarai reports.

Walmart raised its hourly starting wage to $11 last year, and its overall starting wages have risen more than 50% in the past three years. Last year the company offered  virtually free college to employees who major in business or supply-chain management, and expanded its parental leave.

Some critics, including employees, say Walmart doesn't allow enough workers to have full-time hours, which would make them eligible for health insurance, but a company spokesperson told Bhattarai that "a majority" of hourly workers are full-time and that about 175,000 part-time employees got moved up to full-time positions last year.