Yesterday, the retail giant announced they’ll up their starting wage from $9 to $11, increase maternity benefits, and hand out some hefty bonuses to employees who qualify. All of this thanks to the new tax law.
On the surface, it’s a beautiful story: a corporation goes to bed a monster, wakes up with a conscience, and finally chooses to take care of their hardworking employees. That’ll do, Walmart. That’ll do.
For years, Walmart has overworked employees, offered over-priced benefits, and failed to meet workers’ company-wide demand for a $15 wage.
The goliath brick-and-mortar chain, which has more than 1.3m employees, has faced massive black Friday protests, and a slew of non-profit groups have fought tooth and nail to unionize — all to no avail.
Have they turned? Or is this all just some PR fluff to mask the fact that they’re closing 63 locations of their sister company, Sam’s Club, across the US — a move that is speculated to impact more than 11k workers?
Moreover, 10 of the affected stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution centers, and according to Walmart, the employees of those stores aren’t exactly shoe-ins.
“Sorry, Cindy, you’re great, but if you want to work at the e-commerce distribution center, you’re going to have to reapply.”