This is a fascinating article with lots of examples of how Wal-Mart and Edelman (a PR firm that provides “reputation management” services) works internally to counter criticism like this:
In 2005, Barbaro and another Times reporter, Steven Greenhouse, cited an internal memo written by the company’s chief human-resources executive, M. Susan Chambers, in which she suggested that the company could control personnel costs by not hiring unhealthy people. (To keep the sick and the lame off the payroll, Chambers suggested that all jobs should include “some physical activity; e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering.”) In the same memo, Chambers noted that forty-six per cent of the children of Wal-Mart’s million-plus American employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.
Wal-Mart has denied that it discriminates against women. Kathleen MacDonald joined the suit after she learned that a male counterpart, who, like her, was stocking shelves, earned more than she did. When she raised the issue, she told me, “my immediate supervisor said, ‘Well, God made Adam first, and Eve came from him.’ I was, like, what? That’s when I decided enough was enough.”
Why the company can’t pay a living wage? An honest answer:
Mona Williams, the chief spokeswoman for Wal-Mart [said,] “Wal-Mart’s profit per associate is six thousand four hundred dollars,” she said. “If we were to pay two dollars more an hour to associates, that would cut four thousand dollars out of our per-employee profit. If anybody ever stopped to do the math, they’d see this. It would take two-thirds of the profit if we gave everyone two dollars more.” She added, “You could raise prices, but what about the woman who is shopping for Easter shoes for her kids? We can’t raise prices on her.”
One of the many reason I will not step foot in WalMart.
It’d be interesting to see what the median income is for Wal-Mart employees, and how many there are. Considering that every one of Sam Walton’s heirs is on the World’s Riches list, I can’t help wondering how much of that wealth came directly from underpaying them. And let’s no’t forget how they privatize profits but socialize costs like medical care and infrastructure support as a matter of company policy. Such good corporate citizens. (Oh, and they pipe their millions in political bribes I mean contributions 100% to Republicans, according to a list I saw. No surprise there, though.)
The Wal-Mart pay scale is gigantic fleecing of the US taxpayer.
Any illness, any accident, any problem at all of a Wal Mart worker and we taxpayers have to pick up the tab.
I’d resent it less if WalMart wasn’t RAKING IN THE DOUGH.
http://www.revbilly.com
Join the church of stop shopping! 😉
But seriously, I hate walmart and refuse to spend any money there.
but what about the woman who is shopping for Easter shoes for her kids? We can’t raise prices on her.
The hell you say… You CAN raise prices on her. You CAN especially raise prices on her.
I bought a pair of pants at Wal Mart for $16. I’d have happily paid $20 and still saved $20 over the price at a JCPenny. I need to live frugal… but not that frugal…
I try to limit my visits to Wal-mart to once a month. A trip to Wal-mart is sort of like a trip to a livestock sale barn and not in a good way.
Living Wage is such a nice, strategically chosen term. No wonder progressives throw it around with the insinuation that earning one should be everybody’s birthright. An employer is under no moral obligation to provide a wage greater than it believes the labor is worth.
#3, How exactly is Wal-Mart fleecing taxpayers? It didn’t force governments to take on the role of providing healthcare to people. Employer provided healthcare is merely a benefit provided to attract labor, and to keep that labor force healthy and happy (so that they will in theory be more productive). But this idea that employers should be, by obligation, providing healthcare is misguided, and that if they don’t they are stealing from others who voluntarily step in, is absent any logic or reason. But it does make a good talking point for all you leftists out there.
#7 A trip to Wal-mart is sort of like a trip to a livestock sale barn and not in a good way.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Damn… THAT is a funny line!
Is there a good way to take a trip to a livestock sale barn?
Going to Walmart is like playing in the ghetto.
“How exactly is Wal-Mart fleecing taxpayers?” Wal Mart often gets special tax breaks or special lease terms from municipalities to build there, then turns around and pays wages that force employees to go on welfare or get healthcare from medicaid.
Companies that get corporate welfare, should not be allowed to have employees on welfare.
Is there a good way to take a trip to a livestock sale barn?
Well, the sale barn back in my home town in Kansas had a great diner attached and they had apple pie to die for.
Are you sure that was APPLE pie?
So what exactly is the problem here? Their discrimination against woman is obviously wrong, and Wal-Mart is paying a price for that practice, but I don’t find anything illegal aside from that.
I find this rather humorous (from the article):
“Wal-Mart is notably unfriendly to unions; in 2000, when meat-cutters at a single Wal-Mart in Texas organized into a collective-bargaining unit, Wal-Mart responded by shutting down its meat counters across Texas and in five neighboring states.” SHUT DOWN! Poor, poor unions.
Here’s another quote from another website (http://tinyurl.com/2ydzao)
“Walmart’s grocery prices are 17-29% less than other supermarkets, providing the average household with savings of $2,300 per year! ” – I’m so tired of these companies offering lower prices! Damn the increase in the real wage for the consumer!
Why the company can’t pay a living wage? How about…why should they?
Wal-Mart Blows, just like people who shop there.
I think Wal-Mart has forgotten the Henry Ford payscale concept: Pay your employees enough that they put money back into the company.
Maybe if they hired some of those illegal aliens, they could cut prices by half and still make a huge profit!! After all, who could the illegal aliens complain to without getting shipped south of the border?
It’s getting so bad, poor Americans are going to have to learn Spanish and pretend to be illegal aliens to get a job.
People, what’s the fuss?? Wal-mart is not a charity and they can do business the way they want to as long as lt’s not illegal. Don’t like them – don’t shop there. Don’t like their work environment – don’t work there. And, please, stop your whining: there are many opportunities in this country to learn better skills, to learn and get out menial jobs. No, it ain’t easy, and you may not be able to do parties, shopping, camping, vacationing while working on it. But, please, take some responsibilities for your life and, as the first step, – stop blaming others for where you are in life.
A real issue is that if people could get better jobs they would. So we can complain, but pay is based on the economy. In Chicago when they opened a new store they had several thousand people show up looking for a job. So obviously there are people that are willing to work for a small wage. Many of them need the work experience to get a better job, or are realistically only worth what they are getting paid. Restricting Walmart really only helps the people that can afford to shop somewhere else. While it is unfortunate that many people that work at Walmart are on food stamps or medicaid, that is about the economy more than it is about Walmart. They are trying to keep prices low to stay in business. If they were forced to increase their payroll, then they would have to increase their prices which would hurt the poor who get real savings from Wamart. In fact there was a study that said when Walmart comes to town prices drop by 10 percent at all the other stores in the area.
#16, *AMERICA* is forgetting the Henry Ford payscale concept, or rather is trying very hard to get rid of it. And the justification is “they’re not doing it in China or India, and we need to compete with them”.
Sorry folks, but I think a little protectionism here wouldn’t be a bad thing. I don’t want to buy clothes made in China, but it’s getting damned difficult not to do so. Let China sell to the Chinese, what’s so hard with this concept?
Just don’t shop at Mall-wart or any of the low-low-price stores.
#8 >>An employer is under no moral obligation to provide a wage greater than it believes the labor is worth.
Well then. We’ll just have to make it a legal obligation.
Laws are for people with no morals.
As a taxpayer, I’m sick and tired of subsidizing the labor costs of WalMart.
Corps have found a loophole…
CUT employee TIME and the State takes care of the employee…
Cut hours and they dont need to pay benefits
Cut hours and you save TAXES…
for every person getting 36-40 hours the Corp has to MATCH social sec, workmans comp…and a few other things…CUT hours and you DONT need to pay those.
WTF: I aint posted in over 6 hours…
Sorry, you can only post a new comment once every 15 seconds. Slow down cowboy.
Read the “WalMart Effect” by Charles Fishman. A fairly balanced review of how WalMart is both good and bad. Be informed about how WalMart has helped low wage earners as well as the draw backs to its Low Price everyday approach. Just hating it to feel good about yourself is really stupid.
#22, Apparently laws are just for people who don’t share your morals.
Free society, right?
And cut the job and you save even more money.
#6 – NOW THERE’s a url for an unbiased web site!
(Yeah, right…like Planned Parenthood doesn’t have an agenda)
Just think; if they could cut every employee’s wage by $2, the Walton heirs could see their fortunes rise from $15 billion to, say, $20 billion, and thereby become 33% happier! And isn’t that what compassionate conservatism is all about?
Tens of thousands of employees’ kids might have to eat nutritious paint flakes off the wall, but five good, productive, God-fearing Republican donors won’t be punished for their successs with the agony of only having 100 times more than they could spend in two lifetimes!
How about cutting back on illegal immigration, and Walmart would be forced to pay higher wages to get those employees? They could even raise their prices a little as it would then be all employees getting a pay raise, not just their own workers.
#28 – And there ya go… That seems like the right perspective to me.
Its interesting that No one has really brought illegals into this debate.
Let me add something to this.
I live in the farming and dairy community.
Starting wage to those illegals, is around $10 per hour.
Dont think they are being cheap, they KNOW their worth.
And VERY few would even THINK of working retail. It dont PAY enough.
Ask any person that has worked retail, the starting wage ISNT worth it, and the top wage( $10-15 per hour) can take from 2-10 years to get with the hours they are being given, even with a Union.