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Arguments Against Wal-Mart

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Compensation and benefits is a critical Human Resource function for Wal-Mart. Its compensation and benefits programs have gone up against criticism, because of the absence of an effective benefit and compensation plan. Wal-Mart has been accused of unlawfully driving hourly employees to work without pay, known as working “off the clock,” and neglecting to pay employees legally required overtime rates. According to Hatch, Hall, Kobata and Denis, “A Pennsylvania state court jury found that Wal-Mart had failed to pay employees for off-the-clock work. The jury found that Wal-Mart had violated state wage and rest break regulations by requiring the employees to work through their breaks while off the clock. The jury awarded the class of employees …show more content…

2004). Wal-Mart has been attacked for not paying living wage for quite some time. According to Andrew Thompson, “Walmart is known for low prices and low wages. These low wages are frequently criticized for inadequacy in supporting employees’ needs” (Thompson, 2017). “Wal-Mart managers are judged, in part, based on their ability to control payroll costs” (Tejada & McWilliams, 2003) Employees were illegally cheated out of hours, by moving the hours to the next week payroll or not add the hours at all, this in turn prevented the employees from obtaining overtime pay or paid for all hours worked. In the documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Jon Lehman stated that his district manager explained to him, how to cheat workers out of overtime, by going into the system under a false user ID, and moving that time to another week (Greenwald, …show more content…

The end result of this is a cost to taxpayers of over a billion dollars annually” (Brussat, 2005). Not all employees are qualified for government assistance and some part-time employees may partially qualify government assistance. At the point when low wages cause Wal-Mart employees to be incapable of managing to pay for necessities of life, taxpayers are left holding the

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509 Words | 3 Pages

In the article Up Against Wal-Mart, Karen Olsson exposes the largest retailer in the world by listing many of the retailer’s flaws such as worker mistreatment and discrimination. Throughout the article, Olsson uses anecdotes from employees that have worked at the company and statistics to support her arguments. Ultimately Olsson’s piece serves to harshly criticize Wal-Mart due to low pay wages, unpaid overtime, and gender inequality. From the start, Olsson relies on actual employee interviews to support her arguments against Wal-Mart. By introducing Jennifer McLaughlin, a young woman who has been working for Wal-Mart for three years but makes under $17,000 a year, the author builds tension between the worker and the company.

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1347 Words | 6 Pages

This case presented a civil category of dispute that the laws on employment were designed to address and Betty Duke’s complaint was one that the court had the power to remedy. Wal-Mart the defendant in this case made a requisition of the individual employees to make personal suits against the company as the class was so big and was difficult to manage as regards to the legal costs incurred. A class action is a legal exception and should thus be justified by the representative of the class should be included

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1577 Words | 7 Pages

She uses many real-life examples to explain how cruel society is. People always suffer from bad services from Walmart’s employees, but clients do not realized employees have unpaid extra working hours and poor benefits. For example, Olsson uses statistics shows readers how had salary Walmart’s employees earn, “The average hourly worker at Wal-Mart earns barely $18,000 a year at a company that picketed $6.6 billion in profits last year.” (Olsson). Wal-Mart employees are not getting paid enough for their hard workers.

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1485 Words | 6 Pages

Olsson explores the issue of low income, which contributes to her argument that it is putting Americans at a disadvantage. Many Americans who are working at Wal-Mart are not getting paid enough for

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461 Words | 2 Pages

Employees were unable to voice their concerns because they were not allowed to unionize, even the talk of unionizing could be used as grounds for firing. In addition, instead of providing adequate wages and full-time positions, Walmart encouraged their employees to go on welfare to get services such as health-care and food stamps. Employees were forced to put up with this injustice out of fear that they would lose their job since they were considered

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181 Words | 1 Pages

We believe the most infamous issue Walmart is known for is the unfair treatment and pay for employees. Many of their employees only make minimum wage and are employed part time. If employees work hard throughout the year, there is the potential to receive a raise – a whopping $.60 per hour. For a part time employee, that could be less than $20 more a week. Over 70% of Walmart employees are part time; reason being, there are no obligations to provide workers with access to healthcare and other benefits required by the law.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

This unjust act could be solved by unionizing together in order to help transform Wal-Mart into a better

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268 Words | 2 Pages

Many seemed happy working at Walmart as there's a family culture, but the same people experience this same unpleasant feeling on pay day. In recent years, Walmart received

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

I would argue that Wal-Mart’s employment practices are immoral based on different philosophies which are utilitarianism and justice. Utilitarianism seeks the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The “good” here can be referring to “happiness” (Fraedrich, 2013). Based on utilitarianism, Wal-Mart’s ethical standard is immoral as the consequences failed to benefit the employees. Although by underpaying the employees, the stakeholders would gain more profits, however it has resulted in significant unhappiness among the majority of the employees.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Wal-Mart has been faced with impeccable human resource issues when it comes to their employees. Of the many criticisms Wal-Mart has been blamed for, wage law violations through exploitation of workers and discrimination against pregnant workers, women, the elderly, and the disabled are two of the largest ones. Wal-Mart pays a substantially low wage for the amount of work that employees endure. Wal-Mart's mission is to provide low prices for the customer; however, this backfires on employees causing lower wages. There are many solutions to help avoid wage law violation.

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460 Words | 2 Pages

The article uses numerical evidence to support its claim that Wal-Mart’s wage increase announcement is a façade of goodwill. The evidence shows that Wal-Mart has been paying current employees a paltry wage that leaves many individuals in poverty. Current Wal-Mart wages have significantly lower purchasing power compared to its mid 1900s counterparts (Hiltzik,

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234 Words | 1 Pages

The article “Labouring the Walmart Way,” author Deenu Parmar talks about how Walmart is able to achieve selling goods at a lower price then any average superstore. The author goes on to explain that Walmart’s antiunion efforts, employee selection, low prices and high retention rate all contribute to their major success. Walmart’s stance on ant unionism allows them to keep wage cost down and keep all their profits up. Not allowing a union keeps Walmart with the power to keep low wages and force unpaid overtime.

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1215 Words | 5 Pages

‘Is Wal-Mart Good for America?’ On PBS Frontline, May 11, 2015 ‘Is Wal-Mart Good for America?’ is a documentary that examines the relationship between Wal-Mart’s rapid growth and its impact on the US economy ever since it blossomed in trade productivity in the mid 20th century. The documentary, published on February 2014 by PBS Frontline, conveys a deep understanding of how Wal-Mart changed the living standards of many Americans and took consumerism and retail logistics in the U.S. to another level; by cutting costs through offshore outsourcing to China and employing cheap Chinese labor. The documentary focuses on the changing relationship between big retailers and manufacturers and the transition in pricing and decision-making.

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1031 Words | 5 Pages

Walmart’s compensation strategy is mostly using base pay that follows the market rate. Employees get paid by hours they worked. Pay rates are different and depend on the job position and working department relative to the organizational structure. Walmart uses job evaluation systems to provide internal equity and determine the basis for wage rate. They evaluated the worth of each job in terms of its skills, knowledge, responsibility or duties required and converted into an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly wage rate.

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1306 Words | 6 Pages

Understanding the different situations that Walmart has gone through will show that some companies are not as ethical as we think. Walmart Case Study Introduction As the world becomes less connected and less aware on how child labor may affect a children 's life, one must learn to become more knowledgeable, communicate or even try to make a change. For example, child labor may be affecting the children 's interaction at school with their peers and affect the environment where they are in. (Torres, French et al. ,2012) found that, in Bangladesh, children from ages 10 to 14 years old were being used for child labor.

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