Home Office for years only gave 2% increases across the board. I don't care how hard you worked or how great your review was. You could be the superstar of your team, with mostly "Role Model" status and you only got 2%, and the slacker on your team with "Needs to Improve" got 2% too. It was the biggest crock of c-ap ever! Same went for the bonus, everyone got whatever allotted percentage was assigned to their pay band with the final percentage dependent on the overall company success. Again, you could be the superstar, and your coworker a total slacker, but you both got the same annual bonus just for showing up.
More recently, they started giving superstars maybe a percentage or two higher and the slacker got zero. Honestly, that's the way it should be, and is in most normal companies. I think Walmart HO was afraid before to actually give someone a zero increase for their raise review. Probably afraid of a lawsuit and it forced management to actually do their job and track people's work and be able defend why someone wasn't getting an increase. Giving everyone the same percentage absolutely sent the wrong message. It created lots of resentment with the people who are actually doing all the work. And, slackers learned really quickly they can be a slacker and not suffer any consequences.
There are tons of apathetic, lazy people at the HO who just show up for the check. I have never seen anything like it. The company should have parted ways with some of those people a decade ago. I have never worked for a company more backwards that rewards mediocrity than Walmart HO, hands down.
The slackers would actually laugh at those of us who worked hard, calling us the stupid ones for busting our tails. Looking back, they were partially right. Even with getting a percentage or two more, sometimes the extra effort isn't worth the little bit of money for making yourself sick by keeping 90 hour weeks and a relentless pace. Happiness and spending time with your family is in many cases worth more. Too, at the end of the day, when they start cutting heads, it doesn't matter that you're a superstar, they'll lay you off and not think a thing of it. I saw it happen to countless people who were the superstars. People absolutely blindsided with no rhyme or reason.
Now, I'll work hard for the right company where my leadership can be trusted and isn't a psycho nut case. You really need to know who and what you're dealing with so you don't end up getting used and abused. I learned the hard way not to be someone's chump who gets stuck doing all the work.