On a tangent, there’s another large employer I often hear about underpaying their employees—universities and grad students—but it doesn’t seem to raise the same ire.
Would you like me to tell you about the misery of being a grad-student? I can speak from first-hand experience!
But if I do, I’m yelled at for being more fortunate than the poor sods at Wal-Mart, you see.
I read that article; it seems to support my possibly awkwardly worded argument above that having a charity drive for employees who have had unforeseen events and are currently in hardship does not prove—or is merely weak evidence that—the store pays a wage at which the average competant person would be able to expect to live with above minimal standards of living.
For one reason, to be perhaps presumptious, workers at Wal-Mart probably have less long-term planning ability than workers at higher paid jobs—or at least draw from populations in which the skills are less common, etc—and therefore, even if paid enough to live and save, are less likely to have a “rainy day fund” and more likely to need a charity hand-out should they have a car problem, or health problem, etc. Note that it was charity provided by fellow employees, not the general public, so someone they pay clearly has more than the bare minimum.
All employers take attention: Never do anything useful for your employees, because it will create an impression that you are not paying them enough, which makes you an evil person!
(Not meant seriously. But it makes me sad that when one has decided to hate some person, any good deeds of that hated person can be very easily explained away as an evidence that the person feels guilty or needs to fix their evil image.)
Would you like me to tell you about the misery of being a grad-student? I can speak from first-hand experience!
But if I do, I’m yelled at for being more fortunate than the poor sods at Wal-Mart, you see.
As to Wal-Mart and their charity incident...
I read that article; it seems to support my possibly awkwardly worded argument above that having a charity drive for employees who have had unforeseen events and are currently in hardship does not prove—or is merely weak evidence that—the store pays a wage at which the average competant person would be able to expect to live with above minimal standards of living.
For one reason, to be perhaps presumptious, workers at Wal-Mart probably have less long-term planning ability than workers at higher paid jobs—or at least draw from populations in which the skills are less common, etc—and therefore, even if paid enough to live and save, are less likely to have a “rainy day fund” and more likely to need a charity hand-out should they have a car problem, or health problem, etc. Note that it was charity provided by fellow employees, not the general public, so someone they pay clearly has more than the bare minimum.
All employers take attention: Never do anything useful for your employees, because it will create an impression that you are not paying them enough, which makes you an evil person!
(Not meant seriously. But it makes me sad that when one has decided to hate some person, any good deeds of that hated person can be very easily explained away as an evidence that the person feels guilty or needs to fix their evil image.)