Where is all of the crying and gnashing of teeth over minimum wage being too low? Most everyone screams and cries that minimum wage should be raised but when a company does it on their own with it being mandated, everyone is worried that toilet paper might go up a nickel :lol2:

What is negative abour facts and consequences? I don't work for Walmart, but I shop there a lot, but if prices go up, maybe not so much anymore unless there is an extra service I value that will now be provided OR their competition raise their prices as well. Then all this "good news" isn't so good for me or any of the other customers OR the people that got the raises because they have to pay more too.

 

The entertainment value alone is reason enough to shop at Wal-Mart at least once in awhile!

Prices are going up whether they give raises or not. If they are too high you don't shop there. That's the beauty of competition. Pretty simple.

 

 

 

Are those two things the same? Good grief. People get raises for a job they are already doing, which has little to no impact on everyone else (besides potentially raising prices of items you can get at multiple stores). Drunk lady on drugs steals merchandise and causes an accident with injuries.

 

Ridiculous.

 

What is ridiculous is the simpleton notion that raising costs in one area is not going to have an impact on another. Calling out those that mentions this fact is at a minimum pretty arrogant on anyone's part, and extremely close minded and unanalytical in the expected impacts. Why is it brought up if it is not to discuss??????????

 

Of course my example is extreme, but it is magnifying a concept...news has many angles.

 

So, If I don't like someone's opinion...let's just make them look bad. Pathetic!!!

I understand this, my question is are those raises warranted? Will production be increased from the workers? What increase in service will Walmart and/or their customers get from the increased wages?

 

I don't know, everyone at my job is entitled to an annual review and pay increase based on said review. Unless you are under some type of warning, everyone pretty much gets some type of raise, even a little. That is true even if you didn't necessarily improve. My job didn't change from this year to last year with the exception of gaining experience. The same could be said about this move if the raise is going to employees who have been working for them.

 

Another funny, some of BGP feels they can better run Walmart than those running it now, when their gross profit was $31.18 BILLION in 2013.

I agree that many of the people may not seem to deserve a raise. It's easy to find quality applicants when your offering a job where they work M-F 8-5 with little to know manual labor.

 

It's much harder to hire the quality of employees that you want when the job is to be available to be scheduled any day of the week, 2nd or 3rd shift with manual labor a part of every job. Plus 97% of the jobs require you to be on your feet for the entire shift except for breaks.

 

I have hired probably has many or more people than anyone on BGP, trust me it's harder than you think to find good people for entry level jobs like you have at Walmart, McDonalds, Cracker Barrel and others.

Another funny, some of BGP feels they can better run Walmart than those running it now, when their gross profit was $31.18 BILLION in 2013.

 

Walmart IMO had actually lost their way the past 10 years or so, only in the last year or so have they started to right themselves.

 

I could right a book on what they do good and bad :lol2:

What is ridiculous is the simpleton notion that raising costs in one area is not going to have an impact on another. Calling out those that mentions this fact is at a minimum pretty arrogant on anyone's part, and extremely close minded and unanalytical in the expected impacts. Why is it brought up if it is not to discuss??????????

 

Of course my example is extreme, but it is magnifying a concept...news has many angles.

 

So, If I don't like someone's opinion...let's just make them look bad. Pathetic!!!

 

I work for an organization that is top 3 in the country in their industry and has been for a while. I am a financial analyst for them. Cost of goods (What the supplier charges, delivery, government regulations...etc) impact the cost passed on to the consumer WAY more than annual salary increases. Matter of fact, not one person in the financial sector has ever requested data on impact of salary increases since I've been here...10 years. The cost to operate is calculated in the budget and there are budget increases every year. New positions, sure, large impact. Employee pay raises, little impact.

I don't know, everyone at my job is entitled to an annual review and pay increase based on said review. Unless you are under some type of warning, everyone pretty much gets some type of raise, even a little. That is true even if you didn't necessarily improve. My job didn't change from this year to last year with the exception of gaining experience. The same could be said about this move if the raise is going to employees who have been working for them.

 

Another funny, some of BGP feels they can better run Walmart than those running it now, when their gross profit was $31.18 BILLION in 2013.

 

I haven't seen a single reply where anyone remotely questioned that this is a good/bad decision on Walmart's part. Some of us are musing over what impact this will have. There are many reasons Walmart MAY be doing this, and I think social benevolence is probably several items down the list. However, we can be certain they have a reason, and the reason will be a benefit for the business. But I am confident about one fact: NO business would make this cost increase/investment without expecting a return whatever that may be that can also be measured financially.

[/b]

 

I haven't seen a single reply where anyone remotely questioned that this is a good/bad decision on Walmart's part. Some of us are musing over what impact this will have. There are many reasons Walmart MAY be doing this, and I think social benevolence is probably several items down the list. However, we can be certain they have a reason, and the reason will be a benefit for the business. But I am confident about one fact: NO business would make this cost increase/investment without expecting a return whatever that may be that can also be measured financially.

 

Plantman asked if the raises were warranted, that's why I specifically quoted him in that post. How would we know if they are warranted? What the return will be? If they will be better employees? We don't, but when a company is as successful as Walmart you can be dang sure they know why they are doing it.

 

We're in agreement, as you stated in the above post.

Walmart can absorb this extra cost easily, they have been working for the past 40 years on making things more efficient. They are able to operate stores on less payroll today when looking at hours to sales than ever in the past.

 

IMO they see an opportunity to do this without impacting bottom line and are taking this time to do it.

If just one more check out lane opens up because of these raises, it will have been worth it.

I work for an organization that is top 3 in the country in their industry and has been for a while. I am a financial analyst for them. Cost of goods (What the supplier charges, delivery, government regulations...etc) impact the cost passed on to the consumer WAY more than annual salary increases. Matter of fact, not one person in the financial sector has ever requested data on impact of salary increases since I've been here...10 years. The cost to operate is calculated in the budget and there are budget increases every year. New positions, sure, large impact. Employee pay raises, little impact.

 

That is interesting information, I don't what business you work for, but that is very different than many I have or am associated with. It is likely it is either a highly automated business, or a high margin business, maybe you can enlighten further? The business I manage is highly people-dependent, and compensation is 1/3 of our total revenues. Direct material costs are next...everything else well down the line. We are a low volume engineering/manufacturing shop with 250 people, and we pay well above minimum wage. Every business I have been associated with, and consistent with the Stearns and Stuart, manage two things very diligently - headcount and capital. I have not been in a business that is cavalier towards their employee costs...maybe it would be nice.

That is interesting information, I don't what business you work for, but that is very different than many I have or am associated with. It is likely it is either a highly automated business, or a high margin business, maybe you can enlighten further? The business I manage is highly people-dependent, and compensation is 1/3 of our total revenues. Direct material costs are next...everything else well down the line. We are a low volume engineering/manufacturing shop with 250 people, and we pay well above minimum wage. Every business I have been associated with, and consistent with the Stearns and Stuart, manage two things very diligently - headcount and capital. I have not been in a business that is cavalier towards their employee costs...maybe it would be nice.

 

I don't want to get too specific. Here's what I'll say. I do not work for a private company. We have over 12,000 employees. We average $140 million a month in revenue. The industry is interesting, to say the least. It is neither highly automated nor high margin but highly regulated. Easiest way I can explain it is that we are not a private company so not all of our funding necessarily comes from profit margin (although the majority of it does, obviously).

I guess I understand this, but there are many workers at Walmart that dont deserve this for the services they provide. Thats my biggest issue with the Minimum Wage increase discussion. Many of those workers who would get the increased wages, don't deserve it for the services they provide, they are bad employees, hence why they have said job to begin with.

 

The bolded is just absolutely false. So everyone working at Wal-Mart that has a minimum wage job is a bad employee? That's what you're saying.

The bolded is just absolutely false. So everyone working at Wal-Mart that has a minimum wage job is a bad employee? That's what you're saying.

 

Nice try, I said many, you say everyone, big difference.

 

Furthermore , I simply asked do they deserve a wage increase based on the services they provide. Just because were raising the wage, is an ok answer, as long as ALL employees get that same increase in wage. Hundreds of reasons as to why said employee is making minimum wage, them being a bad employee is one possible reason.