Why does Walmart pay its employees such low wages compared to competitors like Costco?
105464
Because they can... as long as people wanna work there, they can pay as little as they like. (as long as it's min. wage)
529806
Wal-mart has the lowest wages. $3.04 an hour. \n\nThats if you average in the illegial immigrants they hire.
812335
Walmart is an evil corporation that sells shoddy merchandise to Americans.
1046607
Walmart has been involved in so many scandals and pay their employees squat. They were recently to have been found hiring illegals.\n\nMost of Thier stuff is crap and is made in China. Walmart wanted the Chinese to make a pay cut and you know what they make!!\n\nPlus it is what is called a dollar drought. They come in, hire people at minimum wage, provide few jobs, have a terrible impact on local communities. None of their money stays in your town, it all goes somewhere else and you can't use it. You town suffers, property taxes go up and your Main Street looks like a ghost down!\n\nIn a word. They suck!
986996
The simple answer is: because they can!  Something happens to people who go to Washington DC that makes them greedy.  They (usually) are making less money than they would if they were CEOs or private-practice lawyers, so they keep increasing their salaries.  They seem to forget that the average working person does not get nearly the benefits that they do, yet must pay for all of the "pork" in the spending budgets.  Their salaries must be kept separate from the minimum wage, though:  The minimum wage was put in place to maintain a floor for people beginning to work.  It was considered a starting point.  The minimum wage was never intended to be the "living wage" that we hear about from those who want it raised.
549004
I shop there because there for food because none of the other supermarkets in town can beat their prices.  I try to buy things like toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent and other household cleaning items from the local dollar stores.  If there was a supermarket in town that could compete with Wal-Mart's prices on food, I would definitely shop there instead!!  I hate going into Wal-Mart because it is always so crowded and because the workers are not very friendly.  Of course, it would be hard to be friendly for what they get paid, but that's a whole different topic!
436787
Minimum wage workers?
287848
Not sure about lawsuites but do believe that Walmart has contributed to the lack of quality products in our country today.  Their pressure on Manufacturers to lower pricing has helped to lower the costs of products available but has also lowered the quality of such products.  Cheaper, less effective, toxic ingredients are now found in many cleaning and personal care items on the shelves.  People's quest to get something for nothing has allowed them to "bully" big corporations into conforming to survive.\n\nI am not able to give you statistics... but do remember reading something in regards to Walmarts unlawful hiring and labor disputes.  I believe Target would be the better of the two... just not sure where the actual statistics are.\n\nGood luck with your debate... at least you are on the proper side of the issue.
119242
Because they use Slave Labor..Very Low Wages overseas..NO UNIONS..No High Over Head.. but it all makes Wal-Mart Happy!!  Buy American when you can!! But even then the American Companies send out products to Mexico to be built s ya never know!!
410053
I noticed that too. Companies with products like Chips Ahoy, Oreos, Dairy Queen, the cookies are a lot smaller I have a cup that before you had to bite off both sides of cookie to fit in cup, now it drops in without biting and room to spare, Oreos Double Stuff are like how reg. Oreos were, companies using smaller containers, making Hershey bars thinner and smaller, they make stuff smaller, charge more, why can't they leave it same size and raise price. Houses $10,000 cost $80,000 in just 5 years, college 10 years ago was $32.00 a credit hr. now it's 75.00 a credit, most classes 4 credits that I was taking. Servers get $2.13 an hour plus tips so in 1995 their boss gave them 2.13 and they had to get 2.13 from customers an hour then to went to 5.15 so boss still only gives 2.13 and servers make 3.02 an hour, boss' side never goes up, server goes up. So when min. wage goes up to 20.00  boss gives 2.13 and you 18.00??  Also gas prices a few years ago cheapest 87 cents to 1.27 now 2.69  - 300   when min. wage increases the companies figure you make more so I'll increase my prices.  Also we are between welfare level and middle class, we make it with finagling and 15.00 left at end of month, but welfare people in apt. complex next door, deal drugs, don't work, but work on their car stereos, and have tons of food, it doesn't make sense.  Welfare to those who need it, not those that refuse to work.  Everything raises because the wealthy don't want to live like us, so they don't lower prices they get greedier. Also the government gave themselves 8 raises since min. wage was increased but we never got 8 raises.  They increased their annual salary of about 89,000 - 200,000   by another 32,000   how would you like a raise of 32,000.
516827
Why do you publish a question that you yourself give the answer to.  The greedy employers have to step up to the plate and start to pay a fair wage, a job doesn't stink if the wages are fair.  You must be able to live on the wages that you make, when a company like Exon gives its retiring CEO 400million dollars in benefits, it is ridiculous that they then pay their clerks in the convenience stores that they own the minimum wage.  Big Business SUCKS.
423124
Are you kidding me?  Wal-MArt is paying folks $2 an hour?  I hadn't heard that yet.  Go back and ask your buddy Al Franken how to respond.....
26525
From the same article linked to by JayNick, \n\nWal-Mart's average wage is around $10 an hour.\n\nAs Tom Geoghegan, a labor lawyer in Washington (and author of Which Side Are You On?: Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back) points out, the relevant number isn't the average, which would be skewed upward by the large salaries of relatively few highly-paid company executives—Scott, for example, receives, by one reckoning, 897 times the pay of the average Wal-Mart worker—but the median. In the Dec. 16 New York Review of Books, Simon Head, director of the Project on Technology and the Workplace at the Century Foundation, stated, "the average pay of a sales clerk [italics mine] at Wal-Mart was $8.50 an hour, or about $14,000 a year, $1,000 below the government's definition of the poverty level for a family of three." That the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour leaves families even farther below the poverty line is a depressing topic for another day.
561956
I'm a former Wal Mart employee. I think the company needs to more for its workers. For example, they don't offer vision insurance, yet the newer stores have optomitrists in them. They also need to make the overall insurance cheaper. I found that most people who work there for the insurance can't afford anything else. Finally, they need to offer a bigger discount, like 25%.
761011
The reason is because the GOP platform is for corporations and big businesses.....These are their supporters and fund there elections!  If we raised the minimum wage, it would ultimately hurt these businesses bottom line....So instead, the GOP blames illegals for lowering Americans wages, its a very clever trick.....However, illegals don't make the rules nor do they sponsor laws!  Congress didn't raise the minimum wage, yet they did vote to raise their own pay!  Its hypocrisy!  And these politicians are out of touch with the American people...
127938
I don't shop at Walmart. They pay low wages, treat their employees poorly in America and in their factories in China. Also most of their products are made overseas which means outsourcing of American jobs. Walmart is bad news for the American Economy. Yeah you get low prices because employees get low wages, poor or no health care, Chinese labors get a scant wage. The phrase "Walmartization of America" or "Walmartizing America" is being used to tell of the negative effects Walmart is having on our economy. Check out the internet. This is one bad company.
801721
It took me that long to get help too. I think that the workers that are floating around don't really know what they're doing, and if you want someone to mix a gallon of paint for you, you need to find the one person in the store who is qualified to run the mixer...and he's usually out back somewhere, having a smoke and grumbling about being underpaid......\n\nStores like Walmart give the illusion of helpfulness, but really they're just a pain in the ass.