Walmart Inc. employees in Arkansas received about $13.9 million in combined bonuses in their paychecks Thursday.
Most of the cash award amount was announced in January, when the company said it would give eligible employees one-time bonuses between $200 and $1,000 depending on their length of service as a result of the new corporate tax structure. Walmart also said at the time that it was raising the minimum wage to $11 an hour and expanding maternal and parental leave benefits.
Walmart workers in Arkansas also received about $2.6 million in bonuses Thursday based on the performance of their stores during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. Employees can earn quarterly bonuses as part of an incentive plan that rewards workers whose stores achieve sales and customer-service goals.
Overall, Walmart said 890,000 of its U.S. employees received a share of more than $560 million in total cash bonuses in their paychecks Thursday. More than $400 million in one-time cash bonuses was awarded with another $160 million based on fourth-quarter performance.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Pulaski Tech to host cybersecurity forum
A business cybersecurity and fraud seminar is scheduled for April 4 at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock.
Hosted by Manufacturing Solutions, a department of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the event will be 1-5 p.m. at Pulaski Tech's Business and Industry Center at 3303 E. Roosevelt Road. The cost is $25.
Topics will include cybersecurity fraud and liability, Internet safety, social media in the workplace and ransomware.
Presenters include Jon Pascoe, Arvest Bank's director of information security and privacy; Christopher Wright, a principal with Citadel Systems; Terry Gambill, a senior special agent with the U.S. Secret Service; and Brendan Monagham, a vice president at BXS Insurance.
Registration is available online at mfgsolutions.org/training-calendar.
-- David Smith
Arkansas Index falls 1.40, ends at 417.17
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.40 to 417.17 Thursday.
"Stocks rallied on optimism following the Trump administration's decision to exclude Canada and Mexico from tariffs on the import of steel and aluminum," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/09/2018