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ages
Walmart reports that in 2006 its workers earned an average of $10.11 per hour. Human Rights Watch estimates that this is below the average of $10.24 earned by workers at discount department stores, $10.55 at warehouse clubs and supercenters, and $11.12 at grocery stores.[45] Walmart managers are judged, in part, based on their ability to control payroll costs.[46] The Wall Street Journal says this puts extra pressure on higher-paid workers to be more productive.[47] Walmart insists its wages are generally in line with the current local market in retail labor.[48]

Other critics have noted that in 2001, the average wage for a Walmart Sales Clerk was $8.23 per hour, or $13,861 a year, while the federal poverty line for a family of three was $14,630.[49] Walmart founder Sam Walton once said, "I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We're going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment."[50]

In August 2006, Walmart announced that it would roll out an average pay increase of 6% for all new hires at 1,200 United States Walmart and Sam's Club locations, but at the same time would institute pay caps on veteran workers.[51] While Walmart maintains that the measures are necessary to stay competitive, critics believe that the salary caps are primarily an effort to push higher-paid veteran workers out of the company.[51]

In 2008, Walmart agreed to pay at least $352 million to settle lawsuits claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock. "Several lawyers described it as the largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations."[52]

Working conditions
Walmart has faced accusations involving poor working conditions for its employees. For example, a 2005 class action lawsuit in Missouri asserted approximately 160,000 to 200,000 people who were forced to work off-the-clock, were denied overtime pay, or were not allowed to take rest and lunch breaks.[66] In 2000, Walmart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Walmart employees in Colorado had been forced to work off-the-clock.[66] The company has also faced similar lawsuits in other states, including Pennsylvania,[67] Oregon, and [68] Minnesota.[69] Class-action suits were also filed in 1995 on behalf of full-time Walmart pharmacists whose base salaries and working hours were reduced as sales declined, resulting in the pharmacists being treated like hourly employees.[70]

Beginning in 2001, a lawsuit on behalf of 1.5 million women workers at Walmart was filed against the company, alleging that the company followed rules and practices that discriminated against women when it came to pay and promotions.[71] Beginning in 2005, the class-action suit Dukes v. Walmart Stores, Inc. was heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[72] Sociologist Dr. William Bielby provided expert opinion on the case, in which he evaluated Walmart's employment policies and corporate culture "against what social science research shows to be factors that create and sustain bias and those that minimize bias" and claimed there was gender bias.[71][72] In 2011, for the U.S. Supreme Court case Walmart v. Dukes, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia rejected Bielby's testimony, saying it was "worlds away" from proof.[71] The Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit in a 5-4 vote, ruling that the plaintiffs did not meet the rules to proceed as a class.[71]

Labor union opposition
Walmart has been criticized for its policies against labor unions. Critics blame workers' reluctance to join the labor union on Walmart anti-union tactics such as managerial surveillance and pre-emptive closures of stores or departments who choose to unionize.[116][117][118] Walmart states that it is not anti-union but "pro-associate," arguing that its employees do not need to pay third parties to discuss problems with management as the company's open-door policy enables employees to lodge complaints and submit suggestions all the way up the corporate ladder.[119] In 1970, Walmart's late founder Sam Walton resisted a unionization push by the Retail Clerks International Union in two small Missouri towns by hiring a professional union buster to conduct an anti-union campaign.[120] On the union buster's advice, Walton also took steps to show his workers how the company had their best interests in mind, encouraging them to air concerns with managers and implementing a profit-sharing program.[120] A few years later, Walmart hired a consulting firm, Alpha Associates, to develop a union avoidance program.[120]

In 2000, meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas voted to unionize. Walmart subsequently eliminated in-house meat-cutting jobs in favor of prepackaged meats, claiming that the measure would cut costs and prevent lawsuits.[121] Walmart said that the nationwide closing of in-store meat packaging had been planned for many years and was not related to the unionization.[121] In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board judge ordered Walmart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales.[122]

Walmart's anti-union policies also extend beyond the United States. The documentary Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price, shows one successful unionization of a Walmart store in Jonquière, Quebec (Canada) in 2004, but Walmart closed the store five months later because the company did not approve of the new "business plan" a union would require.[123][124] In September 2005, the Québec Labor Board ruled that the closing of a Walmart store amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered additional hearings on possible compensation for the employees, though it offered no details.[125]

Overseas labor concerns
Walmart has been criticized for not providing adequate supervision of its foreign suppliers. It has also been criticized for using sweatshops and prison labor. In 1995, Chinese dissident Harry Wu charged that Walmart was contracting prison labor in Guangdong Province. Walmart said it did not use prison labor.[169] There have also been reports of teenagers in Bangladesh working in sweatshops 80 hours per week at $0.14 per hour, for Walmart supplier Beximco. The documentary film Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price shows images of Walmart goods-producing factories in poor condition, and factory workers subject to abuse and conditions that the documentary producers considered inhumane.

Walmart currently uses monitoring which critics say is inadequate and "leaves outsiders unable to verify" conditions. Since Walmart will not release its audits or factory names, outside organizations are expected to simply accept Walmart's claims as fact.[170] Critics suggest an agency such as Social Accountability International or the Fair Labor Association should do the monitoring. In 2004, Walmart began working with Business for Social Responsibility, a San Francisco, California-based nonprofit organization, to reach out to groups active in monitoring overseas plants.[171]

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