Posted on 11/21/2012 9:10:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Wow this is dumb. They pay the ‘most the least’ because they create more entry level positions than other companies.
“Despite this fact, improvements in employee benefits or an increase in pay have not materialized for workers at most of the companies on the list. “
How is this different from the rest of us?
As long as supply of workers (i.e., un or underemployed) exceed the demand for labor, the pay rates will never go up. Yes, the Government could “mandate” higher wages, but that will just drive more into the unemployment lines. All this UNLESS the socialist planners of this country tell employers who they can hire and fire and how much they will pay. A revolution will sure to follow.
exactly! as i started going down the list my thought was, "oh brother!"
If the only job that you have the skills to do is retail..well you are stuck with the law of supply and demand. If you want to make more money..work at a more skilled or tougher trade. There are lots of welders, fitters, electrician, skilled machine jobs out there that pay better.
If you are too proud to get dirty..or too lazy to learn a profession or skill..well flip that burger and stock those shelves.
These companies not only provide a great deal for all of us as consumers, they are places people can often get honest work quickly when you need a job. Some of these jobs are pretty good, too, some not but people move along to other jobs when they can and want to do it. There’s a lot of gain for all of us with these companies, their products and services, and yes: the millions of jobs they provide us.
Single income retail workers used to be able to support their family. What has changed?
Oldexpat: Whole heartedly agree. It wasn’t written about me, but for those yea-woos who think they are “entitled” to everything.
The despicable envy promoting left hates the facts of any matter especially things like what some have already posted. Some of those being what each company brings us as a whole and more.
What I would like to point out is that the CEO of Starbucks makes slightly less than the CEO of WalMart and yet as a percentage of the over revenue makes FAR more than the WalMart CEO....but, they’re liberal....THEY get a PASS.
Barcodes. It used to require skill to be a retailer, you had to know your stock, know your customer. Now you could train a chimp to do most of the retail work, especially at the discount retailers. Somebody that’s good at it can still move on to better companies and make good money. But the majority of retail work now is completely skill-less, they’re basically fastfood jobs without the grease, and turn over and pay have changed accordingly.
yes indeed!
many of the jobs at Walmart and Home Depot and Lowes and Star*ucks are very decent, even actually pretty good jobs. Indoors most of the time, little difficult physical labor, you are normally treated quite cordially (not always, I know) and there is a lot of social contact inherent in the work.
Your point is excellent, too. While these companies are often credited with providing many “entry level” jobs, implying the positions are only for the young to help them get started in life, actually many older people like to work for these companies, too. With one exception, all of the staff at our local Lowes hardware store have stayed there for a number of years ... and like it. This is good for us customers as these people have learned the answers to most of our questions.
We all can’t be subversive journalists or “community organizers,” after all.
“So far, Penney’s attempts at a turnaround have failed, and it is struggling just to stay afloat... If J.C. Penney cannot get some traction during the holiday season, employees no doubt willface more layoffs.”
Starting the layoffs with Ellen Degeneres might help.
This has been going on for 50 years. Fast food jobs, working at Walmart or Sears are not the path to success. Unless you plan to go into management.
Entry level jobs and part time jobs for most of those employed by these companies. Some included jobs where the servers receive tips. Just more anti-business baloney from the left.
Yes, all retail or fast food, and in both industries the vast majority of the jobs are not intended or expected to be life-time-career-primary breadwinner jobs; they are jobs for teens and in-college students; part-time jobs for full-time moms (extra money for the family); retirees supplementing social security &/or other retirment income; in between jobs for seasonal workers; getting-job-experience jobs for unskilled, inexperienced, low grades high school grads still living with mom & dad; and people in similar statuses in the work force.
Are their others that fall into these not-for-primary-bread-winner jobs. Yes. That is not the fault of the employers who hire them and at least give them some employment where others have none to offer.
I am not saying there are not life-time-career primary-breadwinner jobs in these companies. I am only saying such jobs are, by the job requirements, are only a small portion of the kind of jobs these companies provide, and that is why mere “average” compensation figures, out of conext of the kind of work/jobs and the majority of the types of people filling the jobs, is misleading. It is misleading because the authors expect EVERY job in the world to be a life-time-career-primary-breadwinner job, when in the past or now that has never been a reality.
The “income gap” within these companies’ labor costs are directly related to the “skills gap” between the types of labor being compensated. An executive postition requires a lot of intellectual skill and is therefore compensated accordingly. A fry cook or cashier at the bottom of the labor pool are appreciated daily by the customers, but their skills are very common and easily obtained.
I asked a younger healthy worker, who was having severe money problems, why he wasn't working at a higher paying job like the local meat packing plants. He answered, "I found out a long time ago that I don't like manuel labor." Your choice. If you don't want manuel labor, you should get a college edication or technical skill.
And so it begins. The mass vilification of the Grrrrrreeeedy Eeeeeeeevil Corporations who have been HOARDING PILES OF CASH rather than creating Living Wage Jobs for The People under the magnificent beneficence that is Obama.
And, for a couple of these, also payback for daring to squawk about Obamacare.
Also part of the opening salvo of the full-court press to unionize these companies.
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