• rdyoung@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Not to sound like I am defending walmart here, but, walmart was the first major retailer to seriously raise their starting hourly pay.

      • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        But also schedule people to just fewer than the number of weekly hours needed to qualify for things like insurance.

        • penquin@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          They did that to me back in 2010. They kept scheduling me less than 20 hours (which is the minimum requirement to get government help), so I lost all the help I got and Walmart paid me $7.25. Fuck Walmart. I hope it goes bankrupt. I’m in a much better place now thankfully.

          • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            They also have a habit of hiring people during busy times and finding reasons to fire just before the 90 day probation is up in certain depts.

            I was a grease monkey at one store for a couple years, then left and later got a 2nd job in grocery at a different store. After 87 days I was called into the office and told my attitude wasn’t lining up with company values. I was unloading pallets in the back, overnight, so human interaction wasn’t something I did much but I guess they figured out I wasn’t Walmart material just before the benefits would start, the whole company is a fucking rat mess

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              hiring people during busy times and finding reasons to fire just before the 90 day probation is up

              Maybe you’ll hate me too but I wish they did more of this or target different employees. There have been years where I needed some extra income and looked for a short term job without success. I kept getting the response that I was too likely to leave after the seasonal rush, but don’t they need some amount of that? Give a regular employee more hours, but fill your seasonal rush with people looking to work for just the season

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s not just low wages, it’s also a wildly disproportionate amount of part-timers to avoid providing benefits. They undercut local retailers in several markets, leaving towns with little other commerce, making it increasingly more difficult for their part-timers to find supplemental income. They’re a cancer on communities.

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        The devil will be in the details. They likely reduced hours to compensate, which they already do to avoid “pitfalls” like paying for healthcare.

        Wal-Mart’s pockets are deep enough that they could have started paying living wages and made an example of it. Sales probably would have gone up, too. But they didn’t do that. Raising wages to a new poverty wage is helpful, but we shouldn’t confuse it with any real change in status quo.

      • LEX@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Except that you are defending Walmart. Why, exactly?

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        And , not to sound like I’m defending them, but when it first came out that they were helping employees apply for benefits, that was a good thing. Obviously the root cause was low pay, and they rightly deserve blame for that. However if they’re paying prevailing wages and can help employees at no additional cost, that’s a good thing. Basically, making the best of a shitty situation