The Wal-Mart Manifesto

[MSgt213]

The retail giant's CEO says his company pays workers handsomely. He doesn't want you to believe him.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005, at 9:14 AM PT

H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, argued in a speech yesterday in Los Angeles (click here to listen to it) that Wal-Mart is a force for good in the economy. Scott is hardly the first corporate chairman to echo "Engine" Charlie Wilson's claim that what's good for General Motors is good for America. And many independent observers have noted that Wal-Mart's relentless downward pressure on overhead has been a boon to American consumers. (In a recent New Yorker column, James Surowiecki took this further, arguing that the retail economy has become a sort of dictatorship of the consumer, and that Wal-Mart, which earns only pennies on each dollar of sales, is merely doing what it must to stay alive.)

What's fairly new in Scott's speech (a related ad campaign was launched last month) is Wal-Mart's rising on its hind legs to tell the world that it is good to its employees. I'd thought it was a settled matter that Wal-Mart had achieved its miraculously low prices by squeezing its employees. Not so, said Scott:

Wal-Mart's average wage is around $10 an hour, nearly double the federal minimum wage. The truth is that our wages are competitive with comparable retailers in each of the more than 3,500 communities we serve, with one exception—a handful of urban markets with unionized grocery workers. … Few people realize that about 74 percent of Wal-Mart hourly store associates work full-time, compared to 20 to 40 percent at comparable retailers. This means Wal-Mart spends more broadly on health benefits than do most big retailers, whose part-timers are not offered health insurance. You may not be aware that we are one of the few retail firms that offer health benefits to part-timers. Premiums begin at less than $40 a month for an individual and less than $155 per month for a family.

The apparent purpose of the speech was to counter political resistance to the building of Wal-Mart "supercenters" in California. But if Scott saw much danger that Wall Street might believe his rosy picture of labor relations, he wouldn't paint it, because that would create an investor stampede away from Wal-Mart stock. What we have, then, is a unique rhetorical form: Nonsense recited by someone who is relying on most of his listeners to understand that he is spouting nonsense. Wal-Mart took the trouble to send this speech out to writers "who are in a position to influence a lot of others," according to a cover e-mail I received from Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's vice president for corporate communications. I took Williams' email as a plea to expose the dishonesty in Scott's remarks (Stop us before we kill again!) disguised as a plea to give Scott's remarks a fair hearing. I will try to oblige.

Wal-Mart's average wage is around $10 an hour.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2113954/

[blondeatlast]

1. Laugh of the week...

"Dude! It's only retail!"

[blondeatlast]

2. Median is around $8.00 an hour, and a far more honest

indicator of their wages.

Which still means they are paying their top 10% enormous wages compared with the bottom 10%.

[dweller]

3. 'average wage'

is that construed the same way as the 'average tax refund' of the *moron's* tax cut?

you know, when they are including the CEO's salaries in the sum to be averaged...

:shrug:
dp

[blondeatlast]

4. Precisely. The article does a great job of deconstructing the figure.

I fully expect to hear them tout this soon in ads; be ready for it.

[JanMichael]

17. They sure will. They've got the money to perpetually confuse people.

[madrchsod]

5. 155 a month for family insurance

if you actually work 36-40 hours a week. you maybe sent home at any time because of "lack of work". walmart will fail just as general motors did and just as the a&p did in the last century. http://www.aptea.com/history.asp

[terryg11]

6. Doesn't Walmart still suggest

their employees use social medical plans such as Title 19 or whatever is offered in their local areas instead of taking the company health insurance?

[blondeatlast]

10. Suggest? They offer their employees training in working the system!

[SharonAnn]

14. Here in Tennessee, Wal-Mart has the most people on TennCare

which is our Medicaid. It's unbelievable.

[JanMichael]

7. The problem of course is that most workers at WalMartzilla will hear...

...their Management's misrepresentations and not read articles like this.

That speech was so full of crap, it's amazing, really, that he didn't burst out laughing as he gave it.

"I'd like <snicker> to add <cough> that my, I mean our, Associates <bwa> earn an average <heh> of $10 an hour which is <hehehehe> almost TWICE the National Minimum Wage which makes <snarf> it very fai...ffff...faaa...fffaiRRRR AAAAAha ahahaHAHAhahaAhHAHAhHAhaAhHAhhahAAHAHhaa...

<sigh>Thank you, give me more money suckers.<I'm outta hear>

[blondeatlast]

11. That's pretty much what I was doing as I read it.

And rolling my eyes, and sputtering expletives.

If the Left does nothing else, I hope it can drive Wal-Mart out of business.

Have you heard the Sam's Club ads on the radio that spout off about how "they're here for small business?"

These people are masters at self-delusion.

[JanMichael]

8. Oh man, this is rich: The BLS has the National Ave/Wage at $12.31

Table B-4. Average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers(1) on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail, seasonally adjusted

Here it is.

WalMart can't even beat the "averages" let alone the Medians which are a better way of measuring these things.

[JanMichael]

9. kick

:kick:

[Solon]

12. Love it, Wal-Mart's CEO contradicts himself....

I love how the average wage is 10 dollars an hour(counting his salary in as well). Also, more Full Time workers?!?! Yeah, if you define it as 34 hours a week, maybe. I had to complain while there to get a full 40 hours, bastards. I love it that Wal-Mart has to both defend itself and not defend itself on labor practices, one to appease states who don't like it anymore, and the other to appease its shareholders, who hate the idea of Wal-Mart paying a living wage. Also, while the true national median wage is 8.50 as the writer suggests, regionally according to living standards, its lower. For example, in my area, it is around 6.50 to 7.50 an hour, max. I'm sure in other areas with lower living standards, its even lower, and in others, its higher. Remember, at Wal-Mart, its Always low wages, Always.

[JanMichael]

15. Pretty soon they'll call 19 hours a week FT and celebrate it.

Good gawd almighty! We've got 100% Full Time employment! Wheee!

[hfojvt]

18. I do not see that as sinister

In fact, I rather like it. I have worked 48 hours a week and not been considered "full time". By defining people working 34 hours a week as "full time" that should mean that they are giving more people access to full time benefits - insurance, which sucks probably, but is better than you can do on your own; paid holidays; paid vacations; paid sick-leave. I cannot say about Wal-mart, but those are typical benefits that a "full time" worker gets.

So for Wal-mart to call a person working 34 hours a week a "full time associate" is not a mark against them. It is a mark in their favor. It makes them better than an employer who refuses to give people full time benefits to people working 39.5 hours per week.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Mr. Noah's deconstruction, especially the part about reducing the CEO's pay.

[Broadslidin]

13. Ever Notice, The Stagnate H.S. Gym Feculent Smell Inside a wal-mart....?

All the more reason why,
I rushed out of the stinkin wal :evilfrown: mart,
Empty Handed!!

Never to enter again....!

[JanMichael]

16. People really should read what the WalMartliar said.

It's enlightening.