There are a zillion corporations that are paying their help comparable to Walmart. I doubt Burger King and McDonald's hamburger flippers are earning double digit hourly wages.
And yet these same leftist snobs can't get it through their thick skulls that the more demands the government makes on a company, large or small, the less there is to pay employees. For instance, I am surprised at the number of people (usually bleeding heart types) who don't know that the companies we work for have to match our social security and medicare payments out of their gross income.
Maybe it's a drop in the ocean for AT&T but for the small and medium sized small business it's a big chunk. Though I wish all companies would abide by the illegal immigrant hiring laws, I can understand why they try to sneak by hiring them. The government pressures are getting greater and greater on both businesses and individuals. Sometimes one almost feels forced to break an unfair law, not because they want to in a screw you attitude, but because they just won't make be able to make it otherwise.
If you use google and look up Wal-Mart versus Costco, you will find a number of articles comparing the too.
Short answers to your questions:
1. About 13 percent of Costco's employees are unionized.
2. Costco employees are paid more than average in the retail industry, including more than at Wal-Mart.
3. Costco's health care eligibility requirements for health care are more generous than Wal-Mart's. Specifically, Costco employees become eligible for health insurance after three months working full time, or six months part time. At Wal-Mart, many who work full time must wait six months to become eligible. Part-time workers are not eligible for at least two years. Because of turnover, some employees never work long enough to become eligible. (http://www.brynmawr.edu/admissions/careers/abelson_story2.htm)
Costco has even been criticized by Wall Street analysts for being so generous to its employees. One analyst quipped a few years ago that it was better to be an employee at Costco than to be a shareholder of Costco stock.
As time has passed, however, these criticisms have disappeared. Why? Compare stock performance.
Five years ago, Wal-Mart stock was trading at roughly $52 a share. Today, it's at about $46 a share. If you'd invested $1,000 dollars in Wal-Mart five years ago, you would have lost about $115 dollars.
Five years ago, Costco stock was trading at roughly $35 a share. Today, it's at about $54 a share. If you'd invested $1,000 in Costco five years ago you would have gained about $543.
That's why you don't hear as much criticism of Costco's employee compensation program these days from Wall Street.