February 26, 2005

Wal*Mart

Perhaps you wonder why I refuse to shop at Wal*Mart. Well, besides the fact that they're involved in a huge class-action lawsuit against all their female employees for systematic discrimination, here's some
info about labour conditions at Wal*Mart:
- Average pay of a sales clerk is $8.50 an hour. This works out to be $1,000 below the government's definition of the poverty level for a family of three if this is the only form of income.
- Wal*Mart employs so many people at these wages that other retailers are forced to cut paycheques to be competitive.
- Wal*Mart considers 'full-time' to be 34, not 40, hours a week. True, this means someone who works 36 hours a week is eligible to buy health insurance -- but it also means they're even less likely to be able to afford it.
- By one reckoning, the CEO of Wal*Mart receives 897 times the pay of the average sales clerk.

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