Wal-Mart Lowering Wages

The Wal-Mart Stores Incorporation has been working aggressively at ways in which they can cut down costs, which means lowering wages and benefits for those who are working for the incorporation in the United States as warehouse workers. Wal-Mart is known for being the biggest retailer in the entire world but the company has since been known to outsource it supply, in which third-party companies assist with the operation of the warehouses so that the merchandise can be transported to the different Wal-Mart store locations. Many of those firms hire temp workers instead of permanent employees and often times, those workers are paid very low wages. What makes things worse is that there are other large companies who are trying to follow the same moves that Wal-Mart has made because they want to be able compete with the company and offer the lowest of the low prices.

A spokesperson for Wal-Mart, Dan Fogleman, says that as of right now, the company has not had the opportunity to review the report and therefore, comments could not be made about the report from the company. However, Fogleman did says that Wal-Mart cares for its contractors as well as the sub-contractors, ensuring that they are treated with the utmost respect under the highest standards possible, all of which comply with laws in the United States. In the meantime, the study has criticized Wal-Mart and the fact that the company relies so heavily on contractors and the subcontractors.

One author for the study, Catherine Ruckelshaus, says that they are not necessarily saying that the practice of relying on subcontractors is bad. However, she says that when other companies try to do what Wal-Mart does by insisting that everything be at a low cost, there is pressure that gets put onto the contractors, ultimately leading in work conditions that are not up to par for those who are working in the warehouse, which is simply not fair.

In the past, just a few months ago, workers gathered together and were supported by the Warehouse Workers United organization when they filed a lawsuit against the primary contractor for the Wal-Mart Incorporation, which happens to be Schneider Logistics Incorporation. In the lawsuit, allegations were made that stated employees had to work longer than usual hours without receiving the amount of pay that they should have earned and that employees were often receiving less than minimum wage amount. Because of this, Wal-Mart has been working on taking control of everything and trying to provide more steady work in warehouses in which the workers are actually top priority and can receive the right amount of pay for all of the hard work that they are putting into the job. It is believed that some new laws could be designed as well, relating to warehouse work and labor laws.