In 1962, Sam Walton and his brother J.L Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas, and since then, the company has expanded to become the largest retailer in the United States of America. With being the largest retailer in the USA, Wal-Mart also has become the largest non-governmental employer. In 2004, Wal-Mart employed more than 1,200,000 people in its more than 3,000 locations nationwide. Wal-Mart has also expanded internationally to Central and South America, East Asia, and to The United Kingdom (Healy, 2004). However, as Wal-Mart continues to maintain its position as the largest employer, it has neglected their employees and their employee’s rights and people should not choose Wal-Mart as their employer.
Many people have chosen to work at Wal-Mart for the employee benefits which include: medical coverage, discounts on Wal-Mart products, profit sharing and 401(K) planning, paid holidays, and vacation and personal time (“Benefits”). In smaller communities like Maui, food and everyday commodities are very expensive, so being employed by Wal-Mart’s to receive discounts on their products is very appealing. In the last few years, many people have lost their jobs and turned to large retailers like Wal-Mart for both employment and access to the discounts (Hansen). With little income and many expenses, these employees view working at Wal-Mart as a means of help with their situations. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart is a corporation and its main focus is to make profits while still providing excellent prices to the consumers. Many Wal-Mart stores do provide excellent working environments for their employees, but the some that do not provide these conditions reflect on the company as a whole.
In order for an organization to survive, the organization must reduce the cost of its production. Wal-Mart’s production includes the cost to pay their employees and the products that they sell. Because Wal-Mart does not manufacture its items, the company chooses to cut costs by outsourcing its business to foreign countries like China. 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s products come from China. Also the American companies that manufacture its items like the toy company Hasbro, produces its merchandise in China as well (“The Real Wal-Mart Facts”). If most of the manufacturing jobs are based in foreign countries, then most of the 1,200,000 people that Wal-Mart people employs in America, work as retail associates in their stores.
In the past few years, Wal-Mart has shown that they would neglect the rights of their employees in order to save money. Since 2005, the States of Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Iowa sued Wal-Mart for forcing their employees to work during their unpaid scheduled-breaks. In Minnesota, a Wal-Mart store had abused their employees so much that they were forced to soil themselves instead of being allowed to take a bathroom break (Greenhouse). The State of Minnesota ordered Wal-Mart to pay over $54,000,000 dollars to current and former employees that did not receive pay for being forced to work during scheduled breaks. In 2005, the State of California ordered Wal-Mart to pay $175,000,000. In Pennsylvania, Wal-Mart was ordered to pay $188,000,000, and in Iowa $11,000,000. In Massachusetts, Wal-Mart managers were accused of doctoring time cards. Massachusetts ordered Wal-Mart to pay $40,000,000 dollars to current and former employees (“World News, 6”).
In addition to not paying their employees for work rendered, women and minorities have also been treated unfairly at Wal-Mart. Though the company has an anti-discrimination policy, with thousands of stores, making sure the rules are enforced is difficult. In California, a study by the California State University of East Bay showed that women managers at Wal-Mart make almost 20 percent less than male managers at the same level (Billitteri 241-264).
Daryal Nelson, who is African American, applied for a truck driver positions, but he was denied employment at a Wal-Mart distribution center in Mississippi. When submitting his application, Nelson was also required to submit a copy of his credit score. Nelson said that Wal-Mart human resources alternatively offered him a laborer job because they felt that Nelson had lied about his credit rating. In result, Nelson filed a lawsuit with Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart decided to settle by paying $17,500,000 million to Nelson. Wal-Mart was then required to create a new department that would enforce their anti-discriminatory rules in every store (“Wal-Mart Settles Lawsuit on Hiring” 2)
Internationally, Wal-Mart has many stores and enforcing company rules and regulations internationally may prove to be difficult. In 2008, a Wal-Mart in Mexico paid its employees for work rendered in store gift cards instead of in a paycheck. The Mexico Supreme Court ruled that paying employees by gift cards in exchange for work is against Mexico Constitutional law (“Mexican Court Rules Against Wal-Mart.”).
All of the preceding labor abuses and mistreatments occurred with in the past 10 years. If working for Wal-Mart still seems to be a viable solution to economic depression, then what protection do the employees have? The labor union began in the late 1800s to protect workers from employer abuses. Wal-Mart currently does not support labor unions for their employees. Wake Up Wal-Mart.com is a website run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCWIU) that tries to educated people about working conditions at Wal-Mart. The UFCWIU states that Wal-Mart has an anti-union policy and proves their point by citing a lawsuit in Quebec, Canada where a Wal-Mart store soon after it became unionized was closed (“The Real Wal-Mart Facts”). The employees of the Quebec store filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of Canada in 2005 (Maccharles, A15), but then in 2009 the Supreme Court decided that Wal-Mart did have the right to close their stores because there was no law citing that a corporation could not close its business for “social reprehensible reasons” (Tibbets and Van Praet, FP1). If a union cannot protect the preceding work violations, and if the store is subsequently closed after unionizing, employees should avoid working at Wal-Mart all together.
When choosing to work for a company, one must look beyond the benefits such as discounts, and truly see how the company treats their employees. Word of mouth is an effective way to find out if a business is a good place to work. A prospective applicant should ask current employees about the company though they should be aware that the opinions of the employees might be biased towards their company. Some websites allow anonymous people to rate and comment about their place of employment. A website called Job Vent allows users to search for companies and to view their ratings based on several factors on a scale from negative five for horrible to positive five for excellent. Users rate their employers on pay, respect, benefits, job security, work/life balance, career potential growth, location, co-worker competence, and work environment (Job Vent). Another website called Glass Door.com allows similar researching for job searchers. Glass Door, founded in 2007, shows salary details and comments on employee and employer experiences with the companies. Companies are also able to set up their own rating accounts so that they may be able to see what their employees are saying about their company and use the information to provide better work experiences for their employees (“About Us”). However, job searchers must be aware that the ratings of these websites are completely anonymous and each website should be scrutinized to weed out fake postings and biased information.
In the economic times that we live in, finding a job can be very difficult, especially in smaller communities where the job selections are fewer than in more populated areas. Wal-Mart has been a major employer since 1962 and is responsible for the well-being and proper treatment of its over 1,200,000 million employees. With large centralized companies, it is increasingly hard for these stores like Wal-Mart to treat their employees fairly. Job searchers need to be educated about the company that they are trying to work for and understand what they might be sacrificing in exchange for benefits.
Works Cited
“About Us.” Glassdoor.com. Glassdoor, Inc. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. <http://www.glassdoor.com/about/overview.htm>.
“Benefits.” Walmartstores.com. Web. 20 Mar. 2010.
Billitteri, Thomas J. “Gender Pay Gap.” CQ Researcher 18.11 (2008): 241-64. CQ Researcher. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
Greenhouse, Steven. “Wal-Mart to Pay $54 Million to Settle Suit Over Wages.” The New York Times 9 Dec. 2008. The New York Times. The New Yor Times Company, 9 Dec. 2008. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
Hansen, Brian. “Big-Box Stores.” Big-Box Stores 14.31 (2004): 733-56. CQ Researcher. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
Healy, Carole. International Directory of Company Histories. Ed. Miranda Ferrara and Tina N. Grant. Vol. 63. Chicago, Ill.: St. James, 2004. Gale CENGAGE Learning. Web. 20 Mar. 2010.
Job Vent. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. <http://www.jobvent.com/>.
Maccharles, Tonda. “Supreme Court Set to Tackle Wal-Mart Case; Claim That Company Tried to Crush Union Gets Hearing This Session.” The Toronto Star [Ottawa, OT, Canada] 8 Jan. 2009: A15. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
“The Real Wal-Mart Facts.” Wake-Up Wal-Mart. United Food and Commerical Workers International Union, 2008. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. <http://wakeupwalmart.com/facts/>.
Reuters. “Mexican Court Rules Against Wal-Mart.” The New York Times 6 Sept. 2008, late ed.: 7. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 20 Mar. 2010.
- “Wal-Mart Settles Lawsuit on Hiring.” The New York Times 21 Feb. 2009, Late Edition ed., Section B sec.: 2. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
Tibbets, Janice, and Nicolas Van Praet. “Court Upholds Wal-Mart Closure; Quebec Union Fight.” National Post’s Financial Post & FP Investing [Ottawa] 28 Nov. 2009, National ed., Financia Post sec.: FP1. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 21 Mar. 2010.
“World News.” The Grocer 17 Oct. 2009: 6. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
