Walmart is changing the salaries and titles of corporate employees, the Wall Street Journal reports

Sept 30 (Reuters) – Walmart Inc (WMT.N) employees will get new titles and pay packages in the coming weeks to manage labor costs and streamline the company’s workforce structure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The report added that starting in November, many corporate workers at Walmart and Sam’s Club, its warehouse chain, will be reclassified into lower groups of titles and potential wages.

The basic pay and total bonus benefits will not fall to any worker. About 4%, or 2,000, would receive a final reduction in their stock option awards as part of the change, the report said.

Kim Lobo, head of global total rewards for Walmart, told the newspaper that the company is making the changes because its corporate roles have become more diversified over the past decade through acquisitions and new business lines such as advertising.

Lobo said the change is “good compensation hygiene” and ensures Walmart “appropriately rewards similar levels of work.”

The report added that workers whose stock options will be reduced will receive a one-time stock option grant next year to compensate for the immediate reduction in total compensation, but the stock options will be reset to a lower path in the long term.

Earlier this month, Walmart changed its starting hourly pay structure for entry-level store workers. The change means store workers, including cashiers, personal shoppers, salespeople, self-checkout assistants and assistants who manage departments such as sporting goods or electronics, will all receive the same starting hourly wages paid in the store, rather than at different levels previously.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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