Wal-Mart is one corporation that pays its workers the worst. (Photo credit: Flickr user Monochrome)
Fed up with being retaliated against for organizing for their rights, Wal-Mart workers in over a dozen cities took part in one-day strikes against the company. These workers now have a new ultimatum. If the company does not stop with its crackdowns on organizing workers, they will walk out on the busiest day of the year: Black Friday.
This is a drastic move, and would be potentially game-changing when it comes to the relationship between Wal-Mart and its employees. That relationship has traditionally been one where the company recruits workers, crushes their unions, and pays them as little as possible.
Here’s one illustration of that. Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke received compensation worth $18.1 million in 2011. Meanwhile, the average sales associate at the company was paid $8.81 an hour and a $15,000 annual salary (a full time work week at the company is 34 hours), according to independent market research group IBISWorld.
That means that the Duke earns 1,167 times as much as the average worker in his company. And even in times of so much inequality, that’s actually a CEO-to-worker pay ratio that’s way out of sync with the market average. The average CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 209.4-to-1 in 2011, meaning that Wal-Mart isn’t only a very unequal corporation, but that it’s actually almost six times as unequal as the rest of America’s corporations. (By the way, the ratio in 1965 was 18.3-to-1!)
As the brave Wal-Mart workers who are organizing for their rights continue to speak out in the coming days, we should take these numbers into account and stand with them.
wal-mart sells junk…the place should be closed down.
Workers stand strong! We must do this to change the horrible situation
Walmart executives delight in invoking the name of Sam Walton, expounding about his hard work and dream about doing things better and how he became an American success story. If, in fact, he was such an idealist, those days are gone forever. They tell us unions are greedy and power hungry. Let’s take a look at that. Walmart has spread all over the world employing people at ridiculously low wages with no real health insurance options. They buy off our government with their Political Action Committee (WALPAC) contributions. They retaliate against employees who attempt to stand up to their injustices and then lie about doing so. Just read all the stories of abuse on the internet. So, you tell me, who is greedy and wants to be in control. Ask them, if things are so wonderful for their “associates”* as they like to call them, if they would be willing to support their own families on the wages, hours, and insurance options they offer. Then have them tell us what they think. If they are simply sociopathic personalities there will be no changing of their minds. It will all be centered on them. They will say “we have a business to run”. Meanwhile they have been a major contributing factor in running our great country into the ground.
*Definition of “associate” — Joined with another or others and having equal or nearly equal status.
If the wal_mart enter into our Hindustan we will retaliate with violent independence war against it. We already Taught a tough lesson to East india company. Wal_mart will be vanished if they enter into our country.
Go WalWorkers! You have the power!
i use to work at wal_mart and can 100% say it is a sham and is a parasite sucking the blood out of its workers. it got so bad i clocked out and never went back not even to shop. they will break you then throw you away if given the chance.
Good luck to everyone taking a stand against this parasite of a company.