A smiling Walmart Store associate stands in front of a refrigerated meat display in grocery aisle. She wears a blue vest and name badge over the vest.

Our People

Our Aspiration

Walmart seeks to make retail a place of opportunity—where everyone can build skills and gain the experience needed to advance. As a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer, we are shaping work as it evolves with technology and AI to enhance our associates’ experience and to create career pathways. This enables us to attract, develop, and retain talent, meet customer and member needs, and strengthen our talent pipeline—because growth for our associates drives performance for the business.

Walmart FY2026 ESG Report

Relevance to Our Business and Society

Walmart’s ability to serve customers and members depends on the strength of our workforce. With approximately 2.1 million associates globally, including approximately 1.6 million in the U.S. and thousands of stores, clubs, and supply chain facilities worldwide, Walmart’s footprint provides people with access to jobs where they can build skills, gain experience, and grow with the business. As work continues to evolve, we are focused on creating opportunities for associates to build capabilities, move into new roles, and support long-term business performance.

Walmart’s Workforce

Walmart employs ~2.1 million people worldwide, with ~1.6 million in the U.S. and ~0.5 million outside of the U.S.
Our global workforce includes associates distributed around the world with 75.4% in the United States, 9.2% in Mexico, 4.7% in Canada, 3.1% in China, 2.3% in India, 1.8% in Chile, 1.7% in Central America, 1.4% in Africa, and a small percentage in additional markets.
In the U.S., the average tenure for an associate is 6 years. 320,000 associates have at least ten years of tenure and 71,000 have more than 25 years of tenure.
More than 37% of our U.S. associates are under the age of 30.
In the U.S., Walmart’s workforce comprises 49.2% men and 50.8% women. 47.2% of our U.S. associates are Caucasian, 19.8% African American/Black, 21.6% Latino, 5.3% Asian, 3.3% 2+ Races, 1.1% Native American/Alaskan Native, and 0.4% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

Governance

Ensuring our efforts meet the needs of our associates and, in turn, our customers, members, and business through strong oversight, clear accountability, and transparent reporting.

The Board’s Compensation and Management Development Committee oversees human capital management and culture initiatives, while management regularly updates the Board on workforce priorities, investments in wages, benefits, skills training, career pathways, and workforce-related opportunities and implications associated with emerging technologies such as AI and evolving ways of working.
Walmart’s Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer leads our People strategy; the President’s Belonging Council advises on fostering a culture where associates feel they belong.
Walmart publicly reports workforce, wage, representation and other human capital metrics through its ESG reporting, Belonging Report, and Annual Report.

Supporting the Associate Experience

Delivering a people-led, tech-powered experience that supports well-being, listening, and belonging and enables associates to perform at their best.

Walmart supports associates through competitive wages, benefits, scheduling flexibility, safety programs, healthcare, and mental well-being resources. Starting wages for U.S. hourly associates have increased more than 93% since 2015. The average hourly wage overall in the U.S. as of FYE2026 was $18.00 overall and $27.50 for our supply chain associates.
Annual adjusted U.S. pay gap analyses confirmed women and men, and associates who are people of color and white associates, were paid $1.00 for every $1.00 for substantially similar work.
Beyond pay, financial well-being includes paid leave, stock purchase opportunities, and retirement benefits including a 401(k) plan, in which 1.19 million current and former associates had retirement savings as of FYE2026.
Associates share feedback through surveys, MyIdeas, leadership listening sessions, and confidential reporting channels. More than 1.6 million associates responded to the Associate Engagement Survey and 39,500 ideas were submitted through MyIdeas.
AI-enabled tools help simplify scheduling, task management and productivity; for example, MyAssistant, which is now available in 16 countries.

Building a Future-Ready Workforce

Preparing for evolving work driven by AI, automation and omnichannel operations by removing friction, redesigning roles, building internal pathways into in-demand jobs, and upskilling our associates.

Walmart is redesigning work for an omnichannel, AI-enabled business while creating pathways into in-demand roles across transportation, supply chain, health and wellness, and technology.
More than 90% of U.S. roles do not require a college degree, reflecting a skills-first hiring and advancement approach.
Since 2016, Walmart has hired more than 500,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses.
Programs such as Associate to Driver, Associate to Technician, and Associate to Optician prepare associates for in-demand roles. Walmart achieved its original goal of moving 100,000 associates into in-demand roles early and now expects to reach 200,000 by the original target date.

Enabling Associate Growth and Development

Providing access to training, education and career pathways that help associates build skills, advance, and increase earnings over time.

Internal mobility remains a priority: 86.4% of U.S. roles above entry level were filled internally, and more than 160,000 U.S. associates received promotions during FY2026.
Walmart has invested $1 billion in career-driven training since 2021.
Our learning ecosystem includes Walmart Academy, Live Better U, and AI and digital learning opportunities. As of FYE2026, Walmart Academy recorded more than 3.8 million training completions and Live Better U had more than 68,000 program completions.
Live Better U provides Walmart-funded education, certificates, and degrees aligned to in-demand roles. Participants were three times more likely to be promoted and retained.

Advancing Career Mobility within Retail and Related Sectors

Collaborating through business and philanthropy to accelerate skills-based hiring, development, and advancement across the broader workforce ecosystem.

Through business initiatives and philanthropy, Walmart supports skills-based hiring and career mobility across the retail workforce ecosystem.
Walmart founded and continues to support the Retail Opportunity Network while participating in initiatives such as the Human Potential Network and Business Roundtable’s Multiple Pathways initiative.
Over the last five years, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation invested more than $182 million in philanthropic grants supporting frontline worker advancement, including efforts to expand skills-first hiring, improve skills data and strengthen career navigation tools.