Reply to "I once worked at Wal-mart"

quote:

Originally posted by that smart chick:

quote:

No extreme fan of Wal-mart, but while they provide health insurance for only about 53 percent of employees, about 90 percent of their employees are covered by health insurance. Their younger employees have coverage thru their parents' policies

Are you kidding me?????

The data comes from a memo from Executive Vice President for Benefits Susan Chambers. Some other things mentioned in the memo:

“Given the impact of tenure on wages and beneits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no diference in his or her productivity.”

She added that “because we pay an Associate more in salary and beneits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart.”

To solve this “problem,” Wal-Mart has made long-term employment less rewarding by imposing wage caps on hourly jobs. Instead of ofering raises for a job well done, Wal-Mart has instituted new pay ranges for each job category and limited wages in each category. Once employees reach the top of their pay range, their hourly rate is frozen, with no cost-of-living adjustments.

In her memo, Ms. Chambers stated that “spouses are by far the most expensive plan members to cover.” Ms. Chambers recommended decreasing “cross-subsidization of spouses through higher premiums or other charges.” Now, in an efort to attract unmarried workers as well as discouraging spouses from joining their plan, Wal-Mart has implemented a 50 percent increase in the bi-weekly surcharge - from $50 to $75 - for spouses who have access to other medical coverage. According to Wal-Mart’s 2007 Employee Benefit’s book, Wal-Mart will charge $1,800 per year as a spousal surcharge for its “Value Plan.”

Ms. Chambers acknowledged that Wal-Mart’s coverage was expensive for low-income families and that Wal-Mart had a signiicant percentage of Associates and their children on public assistance. “In total, 46 percent of Associates’ children are either on Medicaid or are uninsured.” She might have added that in 23 states – all states that release such data - Wal-Mart leads the list of companies with the most employees and dependents enrolled in state-funded health care programs.

And it goes on and on. You can read it for yourself here: http://walmart.3cdn.net/d959a6ca222757323a_fjm6brfgb.pdf

If people continue to feed the Wal-Mart monster, it will continue to grow. Great companies like Target/Costco, Starbucks, and Toys R Us are all examples of companies that treat their full and part time work force well. No one is forced to work at Wal-Mart. Nor are we forced to suppor them by shopping there.