Mart's Negative Impact Of Wal-Mart And Its Impact On The Economy

Over the years, Walmart has been at the center of controversies with regards, its low wages; overtime pay abuses, employee benefits, gender discrimination, negative impact on small business, immense dealings with China, tax avoidance and much more (Crofoot, 2012). Employees have been dissatisfied with these issues but seem as if they can’t voice it

Walmart has grown from humble beginnings since Sam Walton first established his store in Bentonville, Arkansas. Over the last 50 years, that one store has become huge in the retail world with more than 11,000 locations, over 2 million employees and revenues in excess of $480 billion (Sharf, 2015). While impressive, the company has also courted considerable controversy of the years due to the way it operates. In fact, this paper will argue that Walmart has failed to adequately address employee concerns over wages, failed to stop hiring undocumented citizens, discriminate against women. As a result, Walmart has failed as a corporation because its employees are treated badly.

Walmart is the go-to shopping center for most Americans, but are they fully aware of the negative impact Walmart has caused America? Many people shop where they can find everything at once and is in a decent distance from their home, but most shoppers don’t realize what they are really purchasing or the truth about the stores they buy from. If more Americans knew what they were really getting out of their shopping trips at Walmart they probably wouldn’t come back. Walmart has a privative effect on America more than people realize. The people they hurt in the process of trying to “Save money” and “Live Better” are the backbone of the business, the products they sell might as well be used, and their crime rate escalates more and more, and

Legal issues against Walmart have been brought up in many different states. Many states has a minimum-wage requirement that has to be followed by all the businesses in the state. One example is the case Walmart Stores vs S.C. Savaglio, where a group of Walmart employees sued Walmart because Walmart allegedly had violated California’s meal period law (Cascio, 2010). Walmart lose $172 million dollars in the general and punitive damages. Not even a year after that, Walmart loses another lawsuit in the state of Pennsylvania for forcing employees to work off the clock (Cascio, 2010).

In the United States Walmart effects negatively retail worker wages as well as retail employment. In addition, University of California researchers found that workers in Walmart earn on average 12.4 % less than retail workers as a whole (UNI Global Union, 2012). Walmart’s workers demonstrated thier dissatisfaction with working conditions and low wages by protesting on Black Friday 2012, which is the day the company is making the biggest profit. Walmart workers stood up and more than 1,000 demonstrations in a hundreds encouraging Walmart to act ethicaly towards them. For workers protesting it was a huge risk as they are oficially not protected by any labour union (Progress, 2012). Another evidence that Walmart treats its employees unfairly are discrimination claims. Women workers in California pursue discrimination claims saying that Walmart systematically treats them unfairly. According to women workers retail giant denied to pay raises and promotions due to gender bias (Levine & Gupta, 2011).

“According to the Times, Wal-Mart received hundreds of internal reports of bribery and fraud every year. In Asia alone, there had been 90 reports of bribery in the previous 18 months.” (The World). The worst part is that even though the problems are apparent, they still are not being solved. These factories must be improved because they are very inhumane and unfair in their current state. Employees are treated as slaves just so that the Walton family can make more money. We need change for all of the workers and former workers. All in all, Walmart is very corrupt by the way they treat their

Wages and benefits are not the only complaints Wal-Mart is now facing. Recently, Wal-mart was accused of denying women equal pay and opportunities for promotion (Bianco, 2003). Wal-Mart attempts to distract from their past and present diversity issues by devoting an entire section of their webpage to this subject but until Wal-Mart can show statistical proof reflecting their claims of fair wages, good benefits, and equal treatment, the complaints by the unions and consumers will continue. These upper level management decisions are having a negative impact on the company and providing an unhealthy organizational culture for the organization.

Since 2000, Walmart has been fined numerous times for not complying with labor laws for employees under eighteen years old. They allowed these

customers unbeatable prices that their competitors find difficult to challenge. But in providing those “great deals” it deducts from other sources. Walmart directly imports from Asia and in turn Asia produces cheaply made items and sells to Walmart for a low cost. Thus,

With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and who’s article appeared in Mother Jones, introduces her article through the perspective of a Wal-Mart worker. She focuses on the negatives of Wal-Mart by telling the real life struggles of different Wal-Mart employees. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” by Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for the Washington Post, focuses his article on what Wal-Mart critics say and attempts to defend Wal-Mart by comparing Wal-Mart to other retailers. Even though Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both examine the negative effects of Wal-Mart, Olsson berates Wal-Mart’s unfair treatment towards employees and the unlivable wages that the world’s largest retailer provides while Mallaby

Having the thoughts that women and blacks are inferior and disabled persons are incompetent, make the whole company of Wal-Mart racist, sexist pigs! The thought of those opinions existing through a whole company is not only disgusting, but also depressing as all hell.

Wal-Mart was accused of forcing some hundreds to thousands of current and former workers to work off the clock and exhibiting poor wage practices which resulted in multiple

Wal-Mart is certainly credited with changing the retail world as we know it with its low prices and big stores with huge selections but it has come at a price. They have struggled with issues that question the ethics as a company and legal issues that question how they manage people. These issues will continue to hurt their organization unless a complete change in management thinking and actions are changed. As a socially responsible organization, their management planning in this area is second to none. Lets hope they take the same effort in improving their image when it comes to ethics and legal issues.

“The complaint, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, alleges that Wal-Mart violated federal labor law by "bribing" employees to report on co-workers who favored a union.” (www.washingtonpost.com). But Wal-Mart denied the charges that were brought against the company. Thus, Wal-Mart is wrong by bribing employees for it encourages dishonest behavior. If Wal-Mart wants to avoid a hearing or a lawsuit in this situation, they need to post notices saying the retailer will not oppose employees talking to union representatives. In addition, if Wal-Mart takes more seriously the employees’ complaints, it might encourage them not to unionize.