Always Low Expectations. Always.

It's been a while since I posted anything about Wal-Mart, but I haven't forgotten about them. Nor have I been in one of their stores. But an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription) caught my eye this morning.

Seems that the company is up to its usual tricks. This time they are having low-level managers perform the work of hourly employees so that they don't have to pay overtime. So these "managers" are working as much as 75 hours per week with no overtime, no comp-time, no extra vacation. For between $30,000 to $45,000 per year.

Wal-Mart, a retailing giant with about 3,500 stores and 1.2 million workers in the U.S., and a well-known focus on lean margins, already faces 30 overtime-related suits on behalf of hourly workers in 28 states. Assistant managers who filed suit in Michigan and California, seeking back pay and damages say they spend much of their days on the same tasks assigned to hourly employees entitled to overtime.

The suits claim there is very little difference between the job duties of the hourly workers and assistant managers, especially the nighttime assistant managers, who, "in most cases, are simply glorified stockers who unload trucks, move products into the store and stock shelves," according to legal documents.

[snip]

Wal-Mart tries to hold labor costs to a slim 8% of sales, according to legal documents, compared with 9% to 10% on average at other large-store retailers. The company also encourages store managers to reduce their labor costs each year by about 0.2% or 0.3%, according to legal documents. Last year, Wal-Mart posted sales of $256 billion and net profit of $9 billion.

$9 billion. It boggles the mind. And yet they will squeeze their employees of overtime, vacation or even enough hours to be considered full-time. All for wages that ought to outrage anyone who knows how much it costs just to buy groceries for a small family.

Do us all a favor. The next time you think about stopping in at a Wal-Mart, go somewhere else. Anywhere else.