Wal-mart discounts values, hurts employees

Much Ado About...

Wal-mart is one of the largest companies in the world and, although the low prices are a definite plus especially for a poor college student there are many things about the company that are not commendable. With time, this one-stop shopping store is going to send specialized shops out of business.

One of the biggest problems with Wal-mart is the lack of money it spends on health benefits for its employees. A Harvard Business School study showed that, on average, Wal-mart spends $3,800 per employee on health care. The rest of the retail/wholesale companies in the United States spend an average of between $4,800 and $5,600 per employee. You would think that with the way Wal-mart draws in its customers, they it would be able to spend more on employee benefits. All the excess spending goes to pad corporate bank accounts rather than help the friendly employee who directed me to the fabric softener.

Wal-mart also tends to be prejudiced against women. Just last year, the company faced a class-action case for discrimination charges against six women. One of the plaintiffs, Betty Dukes, began as a cashier in a Wal-mart store outside of Pittsburgh. She had high hopes of becoming a manager one day — hopes that were quickly dashed. Time and time again she was overlooked for managerial positions — usually the positions were given to men with less store experience. Her suit sparked the largest class-action suit in employee civil rights case history. She is one of more than 1.5 million women who hired attorneys to fight the discrimination they felt while in the Wal-mart workplace.

More than 100 women have signed statements that detail incidents and environments that allegedly reflect an attitude of sexism. Some descriptions include male managers holding staff meetings at Hooters and giving higher pay to men because they have to support families, according to an article by Nancy Cleeland of the Los Angeles Times. This implies that women cannot be the breadwinner of a family. It is appalling that in today’s society, where there is a plethora of single mothers raising families, this sexist attitude is permitted — especially at the largest company in the United States.

In Massachusetts, Wal-mart donates money to the support of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. This organization has an agenda of attacking bilingual education and opposing voluntary integrated education, among other things. Although this is happening in Massachusetts, it still means that Wal-mart willingly supports this agenda. By supporting Wal-mart, we are supporting the agenda of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. We should be helping, not hindering, in the integration of these different cultures — even in other states.

In a town as small as Harrisonburg and with a limited — sometimes very limited — college budget, it is difficult to completely avoid Wal-mart. However, next time you go in for the bare essentials, consider the adverse affects Wal-mart has on the American public.

Molly Little is a junior English major.