It's no secret that Wal Mart is not typically the desired place to work, but it would seem that in the last decade or so Wal Mart has been stiff-arming its employees, particularly in regards to wages and working conditions.
For example, in 2001, the average pay for a Wal-Mart Sales Clerk was $8.23 per hour. This translated into an average yearly salary of $13,861. However, at the time the federal poverty line was $14,630. Additionally, Wal Mart does not offer decent employee benefits, and seems to actively encourage its employees to seek out medicade and other national aid programs in order to compensate. Additionally, while they do offer medical insurance, it is very expensive, costing around $70 a paycheck.
Wal Mart increased the pay for new employees by 6% in 2006, but they also instituted a cap for how much the older veteran workers could make. This was seen as an attempt to push older employees out of the company, but Wal Mart's official statement on the matter is that it was necessary to remain competitive.
Wal Mart also seems to follow a lot of questionable practices in attempts to keep costs down, many of which they are paying for now with high-profile lawsuits. Wal Mart encourages "off-the-clock" work, which is work done when the employee is not clocked in, and thus not getting paid. This essentially gives Wal Mart free labor, and they have been sued multiple times by angry employees because of it.
This topic is interesting to me because 9 times out of 10 I go to Wal Mart for my groceries. I think it's sad that as successful as Wal Mart is, they're so unkind about wages and end up getting sued over it. If they expect people to work for free, then they deserve to be sued. Their turnover rate is probably one of the highest and this post tells me exactly why.
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