Whats part time?
whats full time?
Whats part time benefits?
Whats full time benefits?
look, I'm not knocking Wal-Mart, but don't you think it's kind of sad that America's largest retailer has a box our to donate to it's employees? I find that very ironic.
FIRST...You need to drop the idea that Walmart or any employer is the one responsible for the employee.
Walmart employs 2 million people. They are the largest employer outside of government.
They don't hire people TO SUPPLY them with jobs. The hire them because they have a need to fill, but because of the nature of the business, NOT EVERY job NEEDS to be full time. So Walmart hires to THEIR NEEDS not the employees. Its not Walmarts (or any other employers) job to give full time jobs to anyone who is looking for them.
Some employees work part time because of school schedules (theirs or their kids) some because they really don't need or want a full time job. Others work part time because that's all they can find.
Once again, its not Walmarts "responsibility" to hire people. They hire people because THEY have jobs that need to be filled. They pay X amount for that job. If an employee wants to work for X, then great. If not, then work somewhere else. If a person can't find a job anywhere else, it doesn't suddenly become Walmarts responsibility to pay them more than normal or give them more hours than Walmart needs.
So what Walmart is doing is offering a way that its employees and customers can help out some of its employees who are having a tough time.
Here's a little education.
Walmart has 2 MILLION employees.
They have a profit of $16 BILLION.
They had a profit margin of between 3-3.5%
The Walton family owns 48% of Walmart stock.
Walmart offers stock to employees and will match 15% on up to $1800 w/ no brokerage fees.
Do a little math. Take 2 Million people. Half work full time, half work part time. Take the 1 million part time workers and add what you think insurance would cost for each of them. (What $150, $200, $250 a month???) $200 a month x 12 months= $2,400 a year x 1 million employees= $2.4 Billion.
Next, figure hourly pay. How much more should Walmart pay its people??? A simple $2 an hour raise, across the board, would cost about $6 Billion.
Now remember, many of these employees who are hurting financially are part time, so though a $2 an hour raise helps a little, the issue isn't just hourly pay, its overall pay. These people need more hours.
When you're looking at the $16 Billion profit Walmart has, remember that 48% is owned by the Walton family. The rest is owned primarily by individual investers, MANY current or former Walmart employees.
The only way to pay employees more is to cut into profits. Much of those profits go to current and former employees who purchased stock.
Current Walmart stock sells for $79 a share with profits at between 3%-3.5%.
Why would employees buy stock if there was no return on investment? Why would investers buy stock if there was no return? Why would investers hold on to stock if there was no return on investment?
Life is hard. And the bottom line for any business is the bottom line. And the bottom line is, that any business that doesn't show a profit, shows a loss. And businesses that lose money don't stay in business long. Not because they're greedy, but because the people they owe money to are.