Why Are So Many Walmart Workers Unhappy With The Upcoming Pay Raise?

While Walmart is heavily promoting is pay raise for one million workers, its associates are openly complaining on the employee website.

You've probably heard the news about Walmart raising pay:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/19/news/companies/walmart-wages/

I work at Walmart. Walmart raises used to be based on a zero to sixty cents scale. How much you received was supposedly based upon your yearly evaluation. Supposedly.

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Except basically everyone got the forty cent raise. It didn't matter if you busted your ass or if you were a complete slacker, you got the same raise. A few got the fifty cent raise, but it was definitely uncommon. Those were reserved for "exceeds expectations" employees.

To receive a sixty cent raise, the store manager had to agree to it and sign off on it.

Seriously, here is a store manager of anywhere from 300 to 500 employees and she has to review and give final determination over a sixty cent pay raise for one associate.

I have never heard of an associate receiving it.

Those employees were considered "role models." I guess Walmart just has super high expectations for its employees. Incredibly high - like nobody gets an A in class high.

Give With One Hand, Take With The Other

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Starting in 2015, when Walmart announced its first set of pay raises for a small percentage of its associates, the company eased the financial sting by cutting back raises for the vast majority of its associates.

It abandoned the old pay raise system and implemented a new percentage system.

And while they kept they same grading system - Solid, Exceeds, and Role Model - your raise corresponded to a percentage.

Solid, formerly a standard 40 cents, was now a 2.75% of your current pay.

Exceeds, formerly 50 cents, was now 3.5%.

Role Model was 5%.

So, like many other associates, I got the same solid evaluation, but my pay raise went down to 28 cents.

The overwhelming majority of associates I spoke to were hurt by this new system.

Don't Even Get Me Started

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While Walmart is boasting about giving one million workers a pay raise, they are being grossly misleading.

What Walmart is actually doing is taking its employees' annual pay "raises," reducing them even further down to a mere 2% for everyone (no matter what type of associate you are - hardworking or complete crap) and giving them earlier in the year.

Don't worry - Walmart wouldn't offset giving these really terrible raises early by cutting hours, having a hiring freeze, and leaving us short staffed on the floor and at the registers.

Oh, wait. That all did happen.

So, my pay raise will go down to about 21 cents, which is approximately half of where it originally started.

During my tenure at Walmart, my workload has increased significantly as the company has made us do more with fewer and fewer staff and yet our pay raises have decreased.

On top of that, Walmart is getting rid of the Sunday premium - the last benefit from Sam Walton's day. The Sunday premium paid an extra dollar an hour for the associates who had been grandfathered in.

I think Walmart forgot to mention this in the press release.

So, What Are Associates Saying?

"I have been with the company 7 years and it will be the same with me... when this goes into effect I will be making less than 1.00 more than the new hires... I have always had awesome evals and never received less than a .40 raise... this makes me feel really appreciated... and the 2% raise is an insult"

"Agreeing with Mellissa & Emma. Wanting fair pay is NOT the same as being greedy."

And This,

"I've been with the company NINE YEARS, and barely make much more than entry level associates with NO SKILLS. I hardly think it's greedy at all to feel you should be paid more than someone with basic or no training at all. But you know what? Maybe that's just me. I also don't think it's greedy to expect your company to be considerate and making sure the stores properly explain these new changes that are happening. I ask HR every day and this is the same response: "When we know, you will know." Well here it is after February 20th AND NOBODY KNOWS. 😒 "

And here,

"I work self checkout and have done it for 2 years. I've been with Walmart for 5 year on March 15. I was called in today to sign the papers for my increase because of new employees being raised up to $10 per hour....I have been told by my managers, CSS, and security that the job I have been doing has reduce shrink in our store a lot....My new pay is 10 cents more than new hires....I feel very unappreciated by Walmart.. I told my co manager that I'd still would continue to do my job as I always have. All I can say is this is very disheartening and unfair."

Walmart's Website Claims New Pay Raise "Lifts Average Hourly Full-Time Rate to $13.38"

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This has to be some serious numbers manipulation. And it makes me angry because respectable news organizations repeat this number as if it is fact just because Walmart said so. And Walmart doesn't get called out for its truly horrible crappy wages.

Someone needs to do a real John Oliver on the bullshit Walmart spreads.

Two years ago, Gawker published an email from a Walmart store manager. At one point, he discussed Walmart's then claim of paying full time associates $12.78/hr.

"I know Walmart will claim that the average associate makes $12.78 an hour. I have multiple degrees and one is in business. I don't need a degree in business to understand elementary statistics.

The question that should be asked is what the Median pay of Walmart associates is? The typical associate (median) is under $9.00. I know this for a fact. Sure if you add all the ones who make $15-$20 an hour plus us managers that make $50,000 to $100,000 then you can get the $12.78 an hour average."

http://gawker.com/decades-of-greed-behind-the-scenes-with-an-angry-walma-1517661634

And for all the snarky comments . . .

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Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States. If you think about that for a second, it is kind of mind blowing.

In a lot of rural or poor urban areas, it is the most realistic option for work for many people. Getting a job somewhere else isn't feasible.

Go to school you say - better yourself.

Well, there are quite a few students who work at my job. Some will make it through. Some will drop out because they cannot balance the long hours they need to work to survive with their class load. I've seen that too many times.

A good number of people who work there do have post secondary education. There are people who thought Apollo College (now Carrington) or University of Phoenix would be the way to a better life. They got royally screwed over.

There are women who were stay at home mothers, got divorced, and now have old liberal arts degrees with no work resume to help them navigate the job market.

There are people who lost their jobs after the housing market crashed. Some of them had A.A. degrees. Whatever. None of them deserve to be overworked and underpaid.

And what all of these people now have in common is that they have Walmart on their resume. And there is a hell of a lot of bias and preconceived notions about people who work at Walmart.

It will make a job search exponentially more difficult. If you don't believe that, read any comments section pertaining to story about Walmart employees.

In the End

Walmart is a super-duper wealthy company. They can absolutely afford to pay the wages of a decent living. If Jesus met the Waltons, he would burn them with his laser eyes and maybe feel a tiny bit bad about later on. (Not that bad, though.)

America really needs an attitude adjustment. Stop job shaming people. We act like people are exceeding their station in life when they expect a decent living for their 40 hours of work.

Seriously.