Sept 7 (Reuters) – Walmart (WMT.N) is paying some new store workers less than it would have three months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

According to documents reviewed by the Journal, the retail bellwether changed its wage structure for hourly workers in mid-July.

The change in pay structure allows workers to move between work groups such as food, registers, stocking or digital fulfillment without pay impacts, the report added, citing the documents given to some store workers.

“This will allow for better staffing throughout the store,” said one of the documents. Over 50,000 workers received raises because their pay was below the new minimums, the company said in the documents.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Shares of the company rose about 1% in late morning trade.

This reported move by Walmart comes at a time when U.S. job growth data in August showed that the labor market was slowing in response to the U.S. central bank’s hefty rate hikes to cool demand in the economy.

Reuters in August had reported that Walmart was asking some of its 16,000 pharmacists across the United States to voluntarily take pay cuts by reducing their working hours in a bid to lower costs.

These cuts are aimed at pharmacists in higher wage brackets and highlight the new pressures at Walmart pharmacies that was seeing an influx of shoppers lining up to buy weight-loss drugs.

Walmart then said it was reducing the amount of hours it was offering some pharmacists due to cooling demand for drugs during the summer and requests from pharmacists for a better work-life balance.

The retailer had been raising wages over the past few years to attract employees and fight labor shortages that was spurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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