Because bringing you the Wal-Mart news is more fun than grading, here's the key point of an
article by Steven Greenhouse in today's New York Times, entitled "Can't Wal-Mart, a Retail Behemoth, Pay More?:"
Many of those assailing Wal-Mart argue that the company can, and should, pay its workers at least $2 more an hour and add $1 or $2 an hour beyond that to improve its health benefits.
A Harvard Business School study found that Wal-Mart paid $3,500 a year for each employee for health care, while the typical American corporation paid $5,600.
[emphasis added]
If you think this statistic is possible because Wal-Mart is so efficient at delivering health care then you haven't been paying attention. Wal-Mart is costing taxpayers millions of dollars because of their stinginess with employees, yet all they want to focus on are their allegedly low prices. If this doesn't make you angry, I don't know what can.
To continue with the key part of the article:
If Wal-Mart spent $3.50 an hour more for wages and benefits of its full-time employees, that would cost the company about $6.5 billion a year. At less than 3 percent of its sales in the United States, critics say, Wal-Mart could absorb these costs by slightly raising its prices or accepting somewhat lower profits.
But, once again, the thing that's absolutely amazing is just how pathetic the obligatory "Wal-Mart's side of the story" paragraphs are. Here's the first one:
Frances Browning, for example, once earned $15 a hour, but now at Wal-Mart, where she is a cashier in Roswell, Ga., she is paid $9.43. She says she is happy to have the job.
"I was unemployed for two and a half years before I found my job at Wal-Mart," Ms. Browning, 57, said. "Like everybody else I'd love to make a lot more, but I have to be realistic."
So Wal-Mart jobs look great when you're desperate. Great.
Here's another:
By contrast, Jamie Schifferer, manager of the health and beauty aids department at a Wal-Mart in Algonquin, Ill., said Wal-Mart was a terrific employer. She quit her $25,000-a-year post running a Cingular wireless shop to go to Wal-Mart.
After 20 months, she earns $12.50 an hour - close to her previous pay - but now works 40 hours a week rather than the 60 hours at Cingular.
"I was very miserable," she said. "As soon as I heard about this store opening, I jumped. It's perfect for me right now."
New Slogan idea: Wal-Mart is better than working 60 hours/week. And Steven, it's a great story, but she's management. I wonder how the people working under her feel about their job.
JR
