Adrianne Shropshire

Never Enough: Wal-Mart Raises Wages (kinda)

Not unlike our Republican representatives in Washington, who support raising the minimum wage for the working poor only if it's tied to a tax cut for the rich (see Ezekiel Edwards) Wal-Mart will also give a boost to the wages of its working poor, but with a catch. The switch-and-bait in this instance is that veteran employees will have their salaries capped. That way Bentonville can throw a little cash up front and make it up on the back end sending a clear message to job seekers, "please come to work as a one of our happy associates but please, don't stay".

Now, of course, Wal-Mart will say that it's not about pushing higher paid employees out it's about encouraging them to move on to new positions in the company. That is assuming that there are open positions available otherwise workers can just stay in the same position without the possibility of a raise. Ever. Or they can move on to another job somewhere else and start at the bottom. Either way Wal-Mart wins and workers get screwed. And that's a Win-Win for W (that's the retailer not the President although it certainly advances the administrations labor suppression agenda as well).

What strikes me most about Wal-Mart's efforts to change its ways is that the attempts are cynical, insulting, and bizarrely for the biggest company in the world that surely must have the biggest PR department in the world, don't result in good PR. There was the healthcare debacle of 2005, when Wal-Mart claimed that they "heard" the messages around the need to clean up their healthcare act and were making plans to insure that associates got their just due. Then days later faced a "leaked" memo scandal in which the Executive Vice President issued a memo describing schemes to get over on their promise. And earlier this year there was the "we feel your pain" Jobs and Opportunity initiative. And now, the "of course we believe in higher wages" shell game.

The desperate situation of the working poor in this country deserves thoughtful and sincere initiatives to be put forward. Not insulting PR stunts. On the heels of a stinging rebuke in the Chicago Living Wage fight, Wal-Mart once again proves that they just don't get it. NY City cannot legally pass a living wage law like the one in Chicago but New Yorkers will continue to fight the encroachment of Wal-Mart with all available tools until Wal-Mart gets the message that substance is what matters here not press releases.

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Posted at 9:08 AM, Aug 09, 2006 in
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