Some people may remember the Washington D. C. controversy a little while back where the city tried to raise the minimum wage in a move aimed at Walmart. Fortunately, the move failed.
Walmart now has two stores in the city, and it’s clear that they are badly needed, in more ways than one (emphasis in orginal):
Are you liberals going to criticize Walmart for not paying a “living wage,” or are you going to praise Walmart for creating jobs in a area where jobs of any sort are needed? And remember, if D.C. had succeeded in raising the minimum wage, those 600 jobs would not exist today.
Are you White? Male? Raised middle-class? Brought up in an atmosphere of food security, safety, and work ethic? Then you got 90% of the way there without working for it.
Hell, for that matter, are you smart? You say you’ve made “smart decisions.” Some folks don’t have the skills, experience, or intellectual rigor to make those same decisions. Some people make decisions that would have looked damned smart in hindsight, if they’d panned out.
I’m not bashing on you, really. I just find it interesting whenever I encounter such a blatant “fuck the poor, they made their bed, I got mine” approach. Interesting and frankly depressing.
Just as a data point - one of my ventures is that I’m the majority owner in a carpet and upholstery cleaning business. Last week we hired a new technician. Their duties are incredibly simple. Pull some some plastic vacuum hose and rubber solution hose from the equipment van to the item or area being cleaned, hook up the appropriate cleaning wand, and go to work cleaning. It is physical labor, but nothing difficult at all. We have a 95 pound or so female that’s been doing the job for 3 years now, and she has never had any problems with the physical aspect of the work. And we pay very, very well - $15 an hour to start - with raises every six months - simply because we want good quality individuals as our employees - we are going into people’s homes and businesses and want our customers to be comfortable with who is entering their homes.
Anyways, the new guy we hired didn’t even make it to lunch on his first day. His reason for quitting? He didn’t think the hose would be “so heavy”. We’re talking about a 15 pound hose here - it’s not like he was carrying around bags of concrete. So simply because of his laziness, he quit a pretty good paying job and I’m sure is back on public assistance. $15 an hour is pretty darn good for someone without a high school diploma - and he just walked away from it because of pure laziness.
It is very difficult to hire employees that don’t have multiple felonies, have any sort of interpersonal skills, or just are able to show up to work regularly and on time. Again, these are choices that people make. The jobs are out there - I have 3 openings right now, starting at $15 an hour - but it is exceedingly difficult to find someone that will just show up for a scheduled interview. Heck, if I can find someone that has held down a job more than a year, I’ll usually give them a $1000 or $2000 signing bonus just because I think I’ll be able to count on them to actually show up for work.
Your inability to screen potential employees is in no way evidence that there isn’t an unemployment problem. Unemployment is high. Underemployment is high. People who’ve taken themselves out of the labor market is high.
Why don’t you drop by your local WalMart, look for the person cursing out management under his or her breath, and ask that person in for an interview?
We have gone to multiple job fairs for the unemployed/underemployed, but the problem is as soon as the potential applicant finds out there is physical labor involved, although fairly light labor, they walk away. It’s less physically demanding to sit behind a cash register at Wal-Mart than it is to clean carpets. Although we pay nearly twice as much as WalMart, as well as some paid benefits, many people are simply too lazy to do the work. Or they show up at the job fair in jeans and a wife beater barely unable to string a coherent sentence together without swearing or using other inappropriate language. Is that the type of person I want in face-to-face contact with my customers representing the company. Hell no.
If you can act professional, have a good work ethic, and show up for work and do the job the right way, I would hire you in a minute. Unfortunately, a very, very large percentage of people are simply unwilling to do that.
Or you could ask why Walmart is so incompetent that they need to cut pay/staff/hours to the bone to make a profit. To the point that unstocked shelves and few cashiers in the busiest times are the norm.
How is running a cash register only worth 9.00 at Walmart but Costco pays 15.00?
The one group I never have any problems with, as far as work ethic and professionalism, are recent immigrants. I wish I could hire more of them, but I can’t take the risk of hiring someone without the appropriate immigration documents - and many are unable to produce them. But the ones that I do hire are model employees - they show up for work early, work their tails off, are professional and friendly to customers, and don’t shy away from the physical labor aspect of the job. 3 of my 4 managers immigrated to the US within the past 5 years and worked their way up, starting as cleaners. These are guys (and 1 gal) who came to the country with nothing, and now are making $60k - $80k a year, all within 5 years - without any higher education.
If immigrants to the US are willing to work their butts off and end up with a good job, why can’t those born here, who have all the advantages over an immigrant? It really comes down to laziness and not wanting to perform a job “beneath” them, at least in my experience.
That doesn’t address the point. If any Wal-Mart employee can get a raise of $6 an hour at Costco, then we don’t have to pass any laws, or put any pressure on Wal-Mart at all. All the Wal-Mart employees simply walk over to Costco and work there. Presto. Problem solved.
If it is so clear that Wal-Mart is underpaying, why would they get 23,000 applicants for 600 jobs?
I’m always confused by this attitude. If Walmart CAN get all the employees they need at the rate they want, why exactly SHOULD they pay more? As far as why Costco pays more, as noted up thread they have a different cost model. They WANT to retain personnel for longer terms because they have fewer of them, since they have a warehouse based business model. They can pay more because they have a steady revenue stream via membership dues. Walmart, on the other hand, has a completely different model, where they go for more variety in products but attempt to get the cheapest price possible. They don’t mind a high turn over since they have high numbers of tellers and workers in their stores.
Good question. Maybe those who are not yet supporting themselves ( high school kids, maybe college students in dorms). Details are the bitch.
Certainly, if you’re running a register, you’re handling money, you’re the public face of the company, you’re the first line of customer service. That’s worth more than MW. Or maybe throw in a few basic benefits.
Maybe MW should be tied to the local cost of living. (How local? Good question.) SF Bay Area, as an example, is a real patchwork.