Wal-Mart and more L4

[Lance A. Brown]

Dan M said the following on 2/21/2008 12:44 AM:
> Nationwide, Wal-Mart pays just under average for retail workers.  Here near
> Houston, it pays a bit better than average.  So, exploiting the worker by
> paying far less than the next guy for a worker does not seem to be the MO.
> Indeed, as the reference I gave shows, Wal-Mart pays way under scale only in
> those areas where scale is set by union to be far higher than it is in the
> rest of the nation.

Hi Dan,

I'm going to inject one statement into this discussion and then get the 
hell out of the way as I don't really have time to engage this 
discussion.  Normally, I wouldn't do this, but I can't let this pass.

My point:  I think it is disingenuous to talk about the pay scales 
without including the value of benefits such as health insurance, etc. 
and also take into consideration corporate policies concerning hiring of 
part-time vs. full-time workers.[1]

Wal-Mart has been accused of cutting full-time employees in order to 
hire part-time workers without the same set of benefits.  An article in 
January, 2007 states that only 47.4% of their workforce receives health 
insurance through the company and 10% have no coverage at all.[2]

I'm disturbed that Wal-Mart appears to me to be driving its costs down 
on the backs of its workers.

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/news/fortune500/walmart/
[2] NY Time article via TinyURL  http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ebe7b

--[Lance]

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