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My son who is a CompSci major and a junior in college works for Wal-Mart in the summer and during breaks to earn money for tuition. He has been there for 2 years and managed to get several raises up to $7.90 an hour and saved every cent. They are not used to seeing people that actually show up everyday, do work and don't steal the place blind so I guess they were impressed.

Yesterday when he went back for the summer they told him that he must now work for $6.45 because they are "equalizing" wages between the stores. The reason they said they could do this is because when he went to back to school after spring break he was considered terminated and the time he put in did not count. That is a now a new store policy.

So take this for what it's worth. I know and he knows that companies will do what they want within the laws, that's how it works, but we also know that Wal-Mart will get the workers they deserve.

Meanwhile my son is still following up on some IS intern jobs that he applied for and maybe he'll latch on to one of those.

Why are you blaming Walmart? Did your son go back to work at Walmart without discussing pay? And does he not have the same right to find higher paying job as Walmart has to hire him at the wage they did? Jeez, you make it sound like he has been forced to work at Walmart. In the real world a little negotiating skill will go a long way....maybe he should take a course in that while in school.

I have a handful of clients who actually worked their way up in Wal-Mart who now own half-million dollar homes. They have six figure salaries and they were promoted up the chain. That doesn't happen in that many companies where you start out at minimum wage.

But the real answer to all of this is...don't ever, ever shop for a bargain. Do not ever buy anything on sale. Do not compare prices or buy wholesale because all of those things are feeding low wages. Every dollar you greedily hang onto is another dollar that employer cannot turn over to an employee. So remember when you complain about high gas prices that if you pay less you might be taking food out of the mouth of the 4 kids of the gas station attendant. You evil, evil consumer.

This noxious campaign by the AFL-CIO against WalMart is being flanked by the NYT and every other liberal outlet. If you can't compete, you lose. Unions can't compete and want to remove competition from America so they can just keep bankrupting more industries like they did the airlines, trains and trucking. No company is perfect but I'll be damned if I'm going to do anything to help a corrupt union leadership destroy another industry.

Yesterday when he went back for the summer they told him that he must now work for $6.45 because they are "equalizing" wages between the stores.

I have a bachelor's degree, but I work at Walmart on the weekends and substitute teach during the week. I could work full-time there if I wanted to. The reason Walmart took the salary -equalizing step mentioned above is because of the major class-action lawsuit filed last year claiming the company discriminates against female employees. I make $9.00 an hour after one year with the company. There is no problem with surviving in our area (West Michigan) on what Walmart pays, especially if two people in the family are working.