Walmart shareholder seeks change in company

A prominent Walmart investor is pushing ahead to get consideration of a proposal that would link a portion of executive pay to "staff motivation," in what is showing that Walmart's recent wage increase for its U.S. employees is not enough.

The shareholder, Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier, who oversees approximately $40 million worth of Walmart shares in state pension and trust funds, submitted a proposal calling for incentive pay of senior executives to be tied in part to a measure of "employee engagement".

Nappier plans on moving forward with getting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow a vote on her proposal at the company's annual meeting in June.

The company is fighting to keep Nappier's proposal off of the ballot at June's meeting. Even if the proposal were to come to a vote, the Walton family, who controls the majority of Walmart shares can easily defeat it .

Walmart recently announced that it would raise wages for 500,000 of its U.S. workers in what Nappier describes as a "step in the right direction toward investing in human capital". However, the announced wage increase will have no effect for Canadian workers.

Read more: Despite wage hike, some Walmart shareholders seek change (Reuters)