CHICAGO -- Sears Holdings Corp. plans to cut pay and benefits for its work force of 400,000 early next year, according to a published report.

The retail giant was created last week through the $12.3 billion merger of Hoffman Estates-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Troy, Mich.-based Kmart Holding Corp.

Company spokesman Chris Brathwaite would not confirm Tuesday that Sears planned any cuts to pay or benefits, as the Detroit Free Press reported, but he said Sears' employees were sent an e-mail Monday informing them that they would be told next month of changes to their benefits packages, to be implemented early next year.

Brathwaite said the company also would notify employees in April of layoffs at the two headquarters. He did not say how many of the 6,000 corporate employees would lose their jobs.

Sears CEO Alan Lacy and President Aylwin Lewis reiterated in the internal e-mail to employees that the company does not anticipate job cuts at its 3,500 stores, Brathwaite said. He said the e-mail also named nearly two dozen executives who will report to them under the company's new management structure, Brathwaite said.

Sears has said the merger should save $500 million over the next three years.

Analyst Kim Picciola at Morningstar said she would have expected pay and benefit reductions to occur around the same time as the layoffs to accelerate the cost savings.

"It seems as though you'd know what kind of changes you'd make in terms of pay and benefits at the time of the staffing decisions," she said. "I don't know what it would take that long."

But giving employees plenty of advanced notice about the pay cuts could serve as a motivating factor for dedicated workers, said George Rosenbaum, chairman of Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, a Chicago-based market research firm.

"It's a way of separating those who are going to work hard to advance in the company and integrate into a new culture from those who might be looking for another job anyway," Rosenbaum said.

Sears' shares fell $1.51 to close at $129.60 on the Nasdaq stock market.