And if more businesses were like this, we wouldn't need unions. However, most of them are much more interested in their shareholders than their workers, so organization is necessary.
I don't know about most. I can see a need for worker representation in companies that are massive, but I don't know how representative that is of union membership. My experience has been more of the type Funkfoot described.
Wal-Mart CEO makes $17M. Avg employee $8-9 bucks/hour and many need food stamps and Medicaid to survive - which costs all of us. I think they're the #1 retailer in the world.
Yea so with some admittedly quick research ( i am at work ) ive done some math for this assertion that executive bonus's are the real problem that i keep hearing. Walmart has 2.2 million employees. Their top executive got a 22 million dollar bonus. From walmarts website there are around 40 executives listed. Now im not sure what the bonus's are for all the other "executives", but for this instance i assumed walmart would pay out 60-70 million in bonus's to these executives total ( i would think this number is high but i am not sure). If walmart were to get rid of the executive bonus's and redistribute that money to the employees it would come out to 30 dollars more a year per employee. Yea thats the whole problem... damn those executives! (and no i dont think anyone who works at walmart deserves a 22 million dollar bonus). Walmart cant afford to sell shit cheap like everyone loves AND pay their employees significantly higher wages. Feel free to correct my math or bonus numbers, like i said i am at work and dont have time to research this as well as i would like right now.
They don't need a union. They are employee-friendly. They will consult you how to receive that public assistance rather than go on their insurance.
I worked a while for minimum wage. I remember those days quite well. You have little time, because you don't have the money to pay for convenience. Take the bus, wait in lines, etc. Plus if anybody offers you an extra shift you have to take it, because time and a half, man that's too good to turn down. Very little flexibility for vacations, personal issues, etc. Eh, no. Beats being on the factory line in Shenzen. But no, it's not the American dream.
But because we continue to invest exclusively in "job creators" and not in education and technology, it is becoming a career for far too many people. Many of our leaders would rather give a few million in tax breaks to a corporation so that they can "create" a bunch of hourly wage jobs than give that same few million dollars to a university so they can train more engineers, computer scientists, and skilled manufacturers. Meanwhile, Apple outsources its manufacturing to China because we don't have enough skilled engineers, and employs a bunch of college graduates at $10/hr in its retail stores. That's no coincidence. For every tax break we give to a big company for building a new store or factory, we lose the opportunity to invest in creating better jobs through education and other things. There's cognitive dissonance here. Conservatives largely blame individual people for not being able to rise above minimum wage jobs, but the reality is that our politics and economy are geared toward creating more minimum wage jobs at the expense of training and investment in living wage jobs.
I had a friend that started working at Sams Club in high school and kept the job until he graduated from college. Started out minimum wage unloading trucks and ended up leaving with a pseudo-manager position 6 years later making decent coin for a college grad with no family, somewhere in the 25-30 thousand range. You can stay and continue to move up.
Indeed. Republicans have the power to interfere with business and determine the winners and losers. They are using their power to do so.
I'm 24. I never really expect to have "the American dream" unless I marry it. (oh wait, I can't get married in 40 states) House, kids, sorta gave up on that. I made the dreadful mistake of not having enough aptitude in math (always was problem for me since about............2nd grade) to major in science or anything "useful" in college, and believe me, I am being punished accordingly for that egregious crime. And for the crime of listening to my parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and every other authority figure in my childhood and going to college in the first place (I should've been like that kid who slept/drank/smoked weed through high school cuz daddy was the county sheriff, guess where he works now making 50k?).I will be punished until I am roughly 50+ years old and I stop paying the majority of my income to Sallie Mae. It's all good though. I got a microwave. I walk places or take the bus for $1.50 a ride. I buy 10/10 cans of food at the grocery store. I got a luxurious internet connection and I lavishly rent the occasional movie at the Redbox. I am the entitled generation afterall. EDIT-Oh and I bought a comic book today and am going to the movies this weekend. Entitled.
So because one in a thousand Wal-Mart workers can advance to mid-level managerdom at low, but liveable, salaries, the dominance of low-wage service jobs in our economy and the corresponding ability for corporations to emphasize profits over workers is not a problem that our society should try to address? OK.
odd....this is the third time some has put this on my FB feed regarding retail jobs. Are any of you guys on my FB feed??? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the typical retail sales person earns just $21,000 per year. Cashiers earn even less, bringing home an annual income of just $18,500. If retailers were to raise wages to $25,000 a year it would give the average worker at 27 percent wage, raise 1.5 million families out of near poverty, create over a hundred thousand jobs, and increase GDP by over $11 billion a year. http://www.demos.org/publication/re...would-benefit-workers-industry-and-overall-ec
And when the retailers pass that cost along to the consumers that 27% increase will be spent paying extra for the same stuff and they will have gotten exactly nowhere.
Seems like they can share some of that excessive gross profit margin with employees first - just saying. They could easily give every single employee a big payrise and still have huge profits.
I called you out on giving a totally non-empirical example that doesn't even show strong individual occupational advancement, and you think I'm the one making a straw man? That's rich.