Jim Brock / The Meridian StarWalmart announced on Thursday that it will increase starting wages to $11 an hour beginning next month.

Walmart announced on Thursday that it will increase starting wages to $11 an hour beginning next month, up $2 from a company starting-wage hike in 2015.

The retail giant said the increase will benefit more than a million U.S. hourly associates at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, along with website and distribution center employees and those who work at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

This is good news for local Walmart employees, whose minimum salary will soon exceed Meridian’s 2016 estimated per capita income of $20,822, or about $10 per hour based on a 40-hour work week, according to City-Data.com.

“Our associates are really excited about it,” said Dorris Warren, who works in the personnel department at the Walmart on Highway 19 in Meridian.

Those who don’t benefit from the wage increase are eligible for a one-time bonus between $200 and $1,000 depending on length of service.

“I’m also excited to tell you that we’re making an important change to benefits by expanding our paid leave policy to provide full-time hourly associates with 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave,” Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon wrote in a statement on Thursday. “This expanded parental leave also applies to salaried associates and to parents who adopt. We will also contribute $5,000 to the cost of adoption.”

McMillon credited the GOP tax cuts as the reason for the changes, as it gave the company “an opportunity to accelerate a few pieces of our investment plan.”

Walmart has invested $2.7 billion in higher wages and training to mitigate turnover and improve the shopping experience.

“We plan to continue investing in you, in our customers through lower prices, and in our future — especially in technology to help improve your jobs and the experience for our customers,” he said.

Kemper County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Craig Hitt said anything that puts more money into the local economy is a good thing.

“We don’t have a Walmart, but we certainly have folks that work at Walmart, and I know we have folks who shop at Walmart,” Hitt said.

“I think that’s a positive thing for our region for sure because it puts more spendable money into folks’ hands.”

The announcement came on the same day Walmart confirmed it was closing more than 60 Sam’s Club locations nationwide. The closings are expected to occur within the next week, with some already closed.

At the time of this report, it was not known whether the Meridian Sam’s Club location was on the closing list.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that an anonymous company official said about 10 Sam’s Club locations are being “repurposed into e-commerce distribution centers.”