Walmart Raising Minimum Wage: Is it a PR Scheme?

In February Walmart announced that it would be raising it's minimum wage for all U.S. facilities to $9.00/hr, which is 24% higher than the federal minimum wage. In one of my earlier posts, I expressed my concern that this was a PR scheme to get the media off of Walmart's back for a little while. Although many may argue that this is untrue, now that the raise has officially taken place, my feelings about the raise are still there. Forbes makes an interesting case as to how this was just an act for good publicity. Forbes illustrates how although Walmart claims it'll have a massive effect across the company, the wage increase will only effect a small percent of Walmart's employees.

Burtless, a writer for Brookings.com, expressed his concerns that the wage increase means that inflation is just around the corner. The video below is from Slate, and suggests that shoppers will only see about a 1¢ per item price increase to account for wage increases, however, it neglects to point out that Walmart is a huge part of the U.S. labor economy, and this wage increase could cause a market-wide wage increase.

My next concern with the wage increase was that Walmart would be cutting it's benefits. Although this isn't completely true, there is still some validity to my concerns. I previously mentioned how there were pay levels (1-7). With the pay increase, levels 1-3 will now all be making the $9.00 wage, and any associates who were already making more than $9.00 will only receive a 2% increase (for most associates this ends up being about $0.20). Then there are associates like me, who have an annual evaluation raise that increases their wage $0.40 higher than a new-hire of the same position. Essentially, I've lost my evaluation raise because I'll only be making $9, which will be the same as a new-hire (with less experience). Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I'll be getting an additional $0.60/hr, I'm just a little discouraged that I'll be making the same as an associate with a year less experience than me.

Next, a $9.00/hr wage is still not a living wage. A part-time employee making $9.00/hr is still only making about $25,000. According to The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, this is still below poverty level.

Procrastination Nation

T'was the night before Easter and all through the store parents were frantic. "Do you have anything left?!?" No. No we do not. You waited until less than 12 hours before Easter morning to shop for your child's Easter presents. This sort of situation happens before holidays and birthdays. I might sound rude for saying this, but I have a really hard time feeling bad for parents that wait this long-- especially when they take out their frustration on me. If your child absolutely had to have a specific toy for the occasion, why the hell did you wait until the last minute to buy it??

Last night I had a parent scream at me because we were out of Easter grass. My only response was "you could try Dollar Tree".  We've been out of Easter grass for almost a week.

The thing that people don't understand about seasonal items (Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day, etc.) is that we don't reorder these items. So once we run out, we've run out. That way we avoid losing money when we have to discount the product after the holiday.

Working at Walmart Has Made Me Hate People

I've worked a few customer service jobs before working at Walmart, and I always thought that people exaggerated about how crappy people really are. Over the last year I've learned just how much people really can suck. They're stupid, inconsiderate, and just outright rude. Below is a list of just a few things that customers have done to make me hate them:

• Parents have yelled at me because the toy they "needed" the day before their child's birthday was out of stock in every store in our market. 
• Parents have walked right by me and neglected to inform me that their child just vomited down three of my aisles. 
• Teenagers have taken displays down from high-rise shelves for the sole purpose of destroying them. 
• Kids have played kickball in my department while I was on break and knocked merchandise all over the floors of every single aisle in my department.
• Customers have yelled at me because another associate from a different store gave them inaccurate information about my on-hand quantities. 
• Parents frequently drop their kids off in my department to entertain them while they do their grocery shopping. For some kids this isn't a problem because the kids are well-mannered and respectful. However, in most cases the kids think that it's a free-for-all and throw toys at each other and make a huge mess. 

I understand that working with the public usually has its down sides, but I feel like at when you're working at Walmart these down sides and unfortunate occurrences are multiplied. I will say though, that working in retail has made me a more conscience shopper. I always make sure to put things back where they belong. 

Being a more conscience shopper has its negative sides too though. This weekend I was out shopping with my parents and in more than one store they noticed me picking merchandise up off of the floor and placing it back nicely on the shelves. I didn't even realize that I was doing it; it has become second nature to tidy aisles up a bit while I'm in them. 

Rude Customers

When you work with the public it is inevitable that you'll deal with a few customers that are less than ideal. Normally I'm able to resolve customer issues or at least better explain a situation to them. However, the other night I experienced a customer that really got under my skin.

I was in the backroom binning some overstock when another sales associate came and got me because there was a frustrated customer in my department. So I made my way back to the sales floor and introduced myself to the customer. After introducing myself, I asked her to explain the situation to me. In her high-pitched squeaky voice, she yelled "All of you guys are just incompetent fools. I hate shopping here, I don't know why they only hire high school drop outs. The shelf tag says this item is $13 but then when I went to the price checker it rang up as $34.99"!. My first thought was that the overnight stockers had stuffed this item in an incorrect home. However, after scanning the item I noticed that the item was in the correct home.

After digging a little bit deeper I found out that the item had gone on rollback about two weeks ago and when the rollback price fell off, my department manager neglected to change the shelf tag back to the regular price. I explained everything to her and told her that we would still honor the $13 price, I would just have to escort her to the register and verify the price change for the cashier. Unfortunately, for some reason, that wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. She then proceeded to make personal attacks on me and caused a scene. I let her tire herself out like a screaming toddler and then asked her if there was anything else I could help her with. She rolled her eyes and I walked away.

As much as I tried not to let her personal attacks get under my skin, they really did. She had said some really hurtful things about me personally. Even though she was probably the worst person I'd ever encountered, I maintained a professional demeanor and gave her good customer service. I don't get paid enough for this kind of bullshit. I really don't. For a final thought, I'll leave you with this Tumblr post. It's the most accurate post I've ever seen in my life.

Walmart said to Raise Minimum Wage in April

Many Walmart Associates have been fighting for higher wages since around Black Friday in 2014. This morning one of my coworkers shared an article from Blue National Review and it appears that these associates' hard work has paid off. The article says Walmart has announced that it will be raising its minimum wage in the U.S. facilities from $7.25 to $9. This would appear to be good news, but for associates like me it leaves room for some skepticism.

Image courtesy of Tumblr

Currently job titles are associated with a pay level ranging from one to seven; the more difficult your job, the higher your level. Each level is a $0.20/hr base-rate increase. On top of an associate's base-rate annual raises can be added. Each year associates are evaluated by the assistant manager over their area. If the associate receives a below average evaluation, he or she will not receive a raise. If the associate receives an average evaluation he/she receives a $0.40 raise. In some rare cases associates receive an above average evaluation and receive a $0.60 raise. For a hand-full of associates that have been with the company for 10+ years the annual bonus adds up to be quite a lot.

The Walton family isn't a family that has given me much faith though. They have a history of screwing over associates so they can have a greater benefit. For example, during the first quarter of each year, stores are told that they must cut labor costs so severely that many part-time associates go from working 32 hours each week to as low as 12 hours a week. I understand that Q1 has a tendency to be a slow time for retail companies, but many of Walmart's competitors don't cut labor costs nearly that much. I have a strong feeling that with these new company-wide raises are actually just a PR scheme that will get the media off of Walmart's back for a while. I wouldn't be at all shocked if the company did away with annual evaluation raises, cut the level pay differential, did away with quarterly bonuses, or cut insurance benefits in order to prevent the Walton's from "losing" too much money.

With that said, I could be wrong, the raise in minimum pay could actually be a good thing. It might not just be a PR scheme. The Walton's may have actually realized that forcing associates into federal assistance programs when they're the richest family in the world is highly unethical. Who knows? I guess time will tell.