Walmart says this store manager could earn half a million dollars this year — and he doesn't have a college degree

• Mustafa Tovi, 45, draws a base salary of $168,000 as a Walmart store manager.
• But bonuses and stock grants mean Tovi can make up to $524,000 a year, Walmart said.

Mustafa Tovi, 45, has spent more than half his life working at Walmart and has no regrets building his career with the big-box retailer.

Tovi told Fortune in a story published on Sunday that he draws a six-figure salary from Walmart. The Walmart manager said his base salary was recently raised to $168,000, a 17% increase from his original base salary of $143,000 last year.

And that's not all. A Walmart spokesperson told Fortune Tovi could make up to $524,000 after factoring in his performance bonus and stock grants.

"I thank God every day, I thank Walmart every day because of Walmart, the reason why I have what I have today," Tovi said of his employer.

The Kurdish immigrant joined the retailer in 1999 as a part-time employee and was paid $8 an hour before slowly climbing up the ranks, Fortune reported.

Tovi, who says he doesn't have a college degree, was recently promoted to emerging market manager after serving as a store manager for 16 years.

The longtime Walmart employee is but one of the many beneficiaries of the company's new managerial pay plan, which is geared toward boosting employee morale and reducing staff turnover.

Earlier this year, Walmart said it was raising the average base salary of store managers to $128,000 from $117,000. If managers hit their targets, they are also entitled to a bonus equivalent to 200% of their base salary and stock grants worth up to $20,000.

"I almost fainted when I found out," a Walmart Supercenter manager Greg Harden told Bloomberg last month.

Representatives for Walmart didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.