Summary Of Up Against Wal-Mart By Karen Olsson

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. McLaughlin is unable to afford health insurance and many other necessities she may need because of her low salary. Many Walmart employees, including McLaughlin, have begun to speak up about the unfair pay, and many have even sued the company for various reasons. McLaughlin’s boyfriend

Even worse Wal-Mart was deleting time that people had worked, which lead to lawsuits that were eventually settled. Olsson interviewed a former employee speaking on the unpaid overtime and how administrators expected someone to take another person’s shift if they could not to come in. Every store has a goal to meet, and to meet those requirements the employees are treated unfair by the supervisors who is in fault if the goal is not met. Judy Danneman, a single mother of three who is an employee at Wal-Mart would work unpaid overtime trying to obtain a higher position to help the struggling family, because Danneman knew that was the only way could get the position. Olsson uses these examples to explain the mistreatment of the employees, and how it is sometimes mandatory for the staff to work overtime unpaid or even vitally important decision for one’s