pete2800

Here's a fun fact... If you work at Walmart, you're still a low income household.

There was a study done by a university... I'd have to look it up... But the findings were that the money Americans save by shopping at Walmart is mostly given back in the form of taxes to pay for federal aid for Walmart employees. It's not as cheap as it seems.

People like to beat the "providing jobs" drum, but if the job you're providing is substandard, you're not actually helping. I'd rather be unemployed and have my time to use to do side jobs/flip cars/whatever than work at Walmart. It's pretty easy to make more than minimum wage if you're creative.

JamesNoBrakes

Um, yes he did. Can't get more specific/direct than this:

HermannGraf

Exactly!, It is not the passengers fault, it is greedy management that while they raise their compensation by %60+ per year ask the pilots for concessions or stagnation.

There is enough profit in the ticket and bag fees today to pay the pilots well even at the regional level and still show profit, heck some Regional are showing %6 in margins and that is really high.

If a regional can't show profits paying the pilots well (pilot cost is less than %1 of the ticket cost the passenger pays) then the business model and the contracts it accepts to fly are the problems not the cost of pilot pay. The cost for pilots is at a much lower level than acceptable already and should be at least %3-5 of the ticket.

Regional pilots are paid below minimum wage dividing the pay by the duty time and the airline industry is the only one getting away with it.

We not only need a new minimum wage law in pay per hour ($10) but also a minimum wage per month or per year for a full time employee and no one should be allowed to pay less than that for full time employees. If you work 60 hours a week instead of 40 like pilot do it should be paid a min of 1.5 of full time pay. Every hour you are not allowed/prevented to go home (on overnights etc.) and you are at the disposal of the company should be compensated in some way and not only by the ridiculous low per diem.

The times of slaves was supposed to be gone and in the past but it is alive and a reality in the US. Places like Great lakes should be closed and never be allowed to exist again.

It is time for greedy Regional managements to pay.

Sum Ting Wong

Wal-Mart has done more to boost the status of underprivileged workers in this country than a thousand government programs.

Remember: Wal-Mart issues job applications that are submitted voluntarily. Wal-Mart does not draft employees. These people, more than a million of them are not there under coercion or threat of harm if they don't like the conditions and want to leave (as should Regional pilots if they dislike it so much).

HermannGraf

maybe not but... when the economy is bad and there is a lack of jobs available companies abuse that and workers are forced to take whatever job is available and accept pay and conditions below their dignity. They do it if they are not total garbage and prefer to live on welfare.

The ones taking these low paying jobs are people that wants to work and prefer to be a "slave" before being a burden to society.

These people need protection against Company greed. You can't tell them "Do not take the job", they do not have options.

Nextlife

While Wal-Mart is providing jobs for many, they tend to treat their employees much the way they treat their suppliers - as a means to an end. That end being Wal-Mart profits at whatever cost. It is voluntary to work at Wal-Mart, but often times they've driven out the competition. Many of those "created" jobs already existed before Wally World killed them. As for the argument that products coming from China means nothing more than them coming from Mississippi, it's just wrong. If those products came from Mississippi, they would be produced by workers in Mississippi, thus keeping more jobs in the US. Wal-Mart likes to buy from small suppliers, essentially enticing them to up their production, in some cases by a thousand fold. This initially results in increased supplier jobs. Then, they demand that this supplier reduce their asking price for their product by up to 3% per year (like they do with most suppliers). This continues until the supplier tells them to shove it, or they produce and sell the products for ever shrinking profit. Since Wal-mart is 80%+ of their business, if they don't sell to Wal-Mart, they have to reduce staff and sell machinery, etc. or just close down. (The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman)

What does that all mean? It means Wal-Mart is a crappy company, that cares about their bottom line only, not their people and not their customer. Does that make them wrong? No. Does that make them souless? IMO, yes. I only comment because I've studied Wal-Mart a bit and don't like their practices and didn't like the arguments above. I also see parallels between Wal-Mart business practices and regional airline business practices. Supplier (pilot) beware.

Sum Ting Wong

I assume Walmart is not among the holdings in your retirement fund. Do you have it all stuffed in your mattress?

Unless Walmart is entirely family owned, they have to please hundreds of thousands of investors, whose only concern is the bottom line (and who are then allowed to pretend that they have nothing to do with the means used to obtain that bottom line).

pete2800

The Walton family has as much money as the bottom 42% of America. They could afford to pay at least a little more.

Nextlife

"Sum Ting Wong -- I assume Walmart is not among the holdings in your retirement fund. Do you have it all stuffed in your mattress?"


I said they were souless and I didn't like their business practices, not that I was poor. I try to shop there only when I need to (like when I need groceries at 2am when I'm working nights and no one else is open), but their stock is strong and dividend growth from one year to the next is one of the best out there. They certainly know how to make money and I'm not going to pass up taking some of their profits, 'cause let's face it, they're a juggernaut that is here to stay. Not a moral decision, just a financial one.

mojo6911

They sell the same crap "higher" end places like Target sell.