Walmart Giving All Employees a Raise to $10/Hour

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Walmart, a long-standing target of minimum wage advocates, has agreed to raise its minimum pay level for all employees to $9/hour this April and to $10/hour by February 2016.

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

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Why is it that people feel that the practical cold-hearted reason Walmart gave in their press release isn't cold-hearted enough to be the real reason?  If Walmart is having problems with employee churn, then raising wages to reduce that churn will end up saving them money in the long term.

Of course. Everyone here is saying Walmart will cut employee hours and fire people to compensate, but it really can't. The company is struggling to perform basic business functions (like keeping store shelves stocked) as it is. Unemployment is now down to 5.6%, and Walmart needs to better compete for reliable workers. It's clear the status quo isn't working for them at all.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Update: TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods follow by increasing their minimum to $9/hour beginning in June; to $10 by 2016.

http://consumerist.com/2015/02/25/t-j-maxx-marshalls-homegoods-to-increase-minimum-wage-to-9hour/

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Ugh.  Not enough.  The min. wage should be $15 at the least but all we are going to hear is "praise Money-Jesus the invisible hand has saved us all again!"

Hey man, glass is half full here. For your purposes, the left can use this as proof the economy and businesses are willing to expand it and demand 15.

But be happy to see this happen.

The real hurdle is food service workers. I can't see any fast food company willing to make a move like Wal-Mart to shake up the industry. The only ones that would like Chipotle and Starbucks don't really hire bottom of the barrel food employees to begin with; it would have to come from McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts or the like.

If anyone needs the PR boost, it's McDonalds. It just spent millions on that dumb "love" ad campaign and it didn't move the needle at all. The company has big problems with worker quality and public perception; hiking its wages would help on both fronts.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Here's a fun riddle: The cost of installing self-checkout lanes is only about $30,000; automated food ordering tech can cost even less than that. The tech is currently much less expensive than hiring a human to do it, and it's been that way for quite some time.

So: If self-checkout lanes are such a great money-saver for businesses, why aren't there more of them now?

Hint: It has something to do with the fact that most people simply don't like using self-checkout lanes.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Here's a fun riddle: The cost of installing self-checkout lanes is only about $30,000; automated food ordering tech can cost even less than that. The tech is currently much less expensive than hiring a human to do it, and it's been that way for quite some time.

So: If self-checkout lanes are such a great money-saver for businesses, why aren't there more of them now?

Hint: It has something to do with the fact that most people simply don't like using self-checkout lanes.

Robots are only cheaper than humans, if you bury humans in FICA taxes and healthcare mandates, and forcing people to pay excise tax to fund roads (robots don't pay it, but they benefit from roads), rather than paying for roads with a broad economic income tax.  

Thanks, Democrats. Torpid little regressives with zero shame and even less brains.

Predictably, you are completely incorrect. Robots are cheaper than humans, even if the tax rate is zero; one self-checkout lane replaces more than one cashier because machines don't stop at a 40 hour week. Also: Your insults are not productive nor are they welcome on this forum.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Plenty of supermarkets have made the decision to remove self-checkout lanes after installing them simply because consumers don't actually like using them.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The above article is about Jewel-Osco removing their machines. Albertsons removed self-checkout lanes in 2011.

See also: Returning to Walmart: Human cashiers
WSJ: Humans trump self-checkout machines at grocery store
Marketplace: Why self-checkout machines don't work

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Work is not hard to find right now.

If work was hard for people to find, this thread wouldn't exist because Walmart wouldn't have raised wages to $10 per hour.

Even Bushie just found a $10 per hour job, I mean come on

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

So I just tell the fast food place by my work that has had a NOW HIRING sign up for months now on the side of their building that the problem is not that nobody wants to work there but that their jobs really don't exist because a guy on an internet says the data doesn't show they do.

First of all, now hiring just means they are willing to replace someone who lacks the credentials they prefer.

No. This is ridiculous. No one does this. If you let an employee go, you have to pay into their unemployment benefits. No company hires people intending to let them go and replace them. That's craziness. It just doesn't happen.

"Hey Steve.

"Listen, you've been a valued member of this team over the last 6 months. We appreciate all the work you've been putting in to crisp up these french fries. Solid effort. You have a great salting technique, too.

"Unfortunately, though, we just got an application in from someone with a PhD in Fryology. You knew when you were hired that we were ideally looking for someone with, you know, better qualifications. Sorry Steve, but you know, this is just how the real world works. Minimum wage jobs are all about credentials. You'd know that if you spent any time reading commentary on Internet message boards."

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Wait,  you own a fast food joint? I thought you had clients that made huge amounts of money.

All those super-sizings add up quick.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Update: Target has announced it will raise its minimum wage to $9 per hour effective this April.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102508233