I felt like my Wal-Mart bashing whilst provoking the wannabe-troll over in NFG deserved a little justification (if you don't know don't bother, we were just having a little fun with him) so here's a short bit on it, feel free to discuss.
Let's start off with the benefits plan: Wal-Mart offers a benefit package to its full time employees. Too bad it sucks (here's a quote from an article at PBS.com):
Two points here besides these: Wal-Mart, like most shitbag employers in its strata, does not qualify most of its employees as "full-time" so they're not eligible for benefits. The benefits are a publicity stunt with no real effective value to most employees, they're a morale thing and something for Wal-Mart to point to when it holds union bashing rallies and tries to brainwash its employees into thinking they're doing them right.
Second point: if you understand stocks you understand two things about their stock program: one, $1800 dollars doesn't mean dick. Wal-Mart is effectively pledging to add $270 dollars to a person's paycheck over the course of time it takes to amass those stocks, and at the rate most of their employees are paid they can only afford one or two stocks per check (Wal-Mart stocks are currently at 59.88 as of this writing, which is about 10% of net earnings on a two-week paycheck at their typical $8.00ish per hour wage). This means, effectively, that if you give 10% of your pay back to Wal-Mart each pay period they're offering a measly ~$9 in added value. Wohoo, daddy's getting a new pair of shoes! As if that's not insult enough they cap it off at $1800.
The second thing is that Wal-Mart's stock program is an utter mockery of the stock options offered by non-asshole companies. For the non-saavy, a stock option is basically an agreement to sell a stock to you at its rate as of the issuance of the option, but you can choose to buy the stock at a later date. If the stock goes up, you can buy it and turn an instant profit. If the stock goes down, you don't loose a dime. This is used as an incentive and reward system for employees to make an extra effort to increase the company's value. They usually don't charge you for the fucking options out of your paycheck either, they just give them to you and you decide whether to exercise them at any time up till their expiration (normally you pay a fee to purchase an option when you're trading stocks).
Wal-Mart's stock program amounts to a weasely way to cut employee wages by automatically reinvesting the wages into the company. Yes, you can sell the stocks you buy, and yes, right now Wal-Mart stock is growing - it's experienced a pretty big gain this year but it's hard to say where it's going in the long term, it's been depressed for the last 5 years. A Wal-Mart employee who wishes to invest money would be much better served following safe and sane practices for long-term growth than dumping all their eggs in the Wal-Mart basket and hoping for the best. Personally I don't think Wal-Mart is going to do well under union law reforms we're liable to see if Obama is elected, nor is it going to survive a post-industrial China with its current business model. If the stocks go back down to their 2003-2006 levels the $9 bucks they give you per paycheck is going to be a pittance compared to the $20 or so per stock you'll lose.
So yeah, fuck Wal-Mart, and fuck Hatter.
Let's start off with the benefits plan: Wal-Mart offers a benefit package to its full time employees. Too bad it sucks (here's a quote from an article at PBS.com):
Two points here besides these: Wal-Mart, like most shitbag employers in its strata, does not qualify most of its employees as "full-time" so they're not eligible for benefits. The benefits are a publicity stunt with no real effective value to most employees, they're a morale thing and something for Wal-Mart to point to when it holds union bashing rallies and tries to brainwash its employees into thinking they're doing them right.
Second point: if you understand stocks you understand two things about their stock program: one, $1800 dollars doesn't mean dick. Wal-Mart is effectively pledging to add $270 dollars to a person's paycheck over the course of time it takes to amass those stocks, and at the rate most of their employees are paid they can only afford one or two stocks per check (Wal-Mart stocks are currently at 59.88 as of this writing, which is about 10% of net earnings on a two-week paycheck at their typical $8.00ish per hour wage). This means, effectively, that if you give 10% of your pay back to Wal-Mart each pay period they're offering a measly ~$9 in added value. Wohoo, daddy's getting a new pair of shoes! As if that's not insult enough they cap it off at $1800.
The second thing is that Wal-Mart's stock program is an utter mockery of the stock options offered by non-asshole companies. For the non-saavy, a stock option is basically an agreement to sell a stock to you at its rate as of the issuance of the option, but you can choose to buy the stock at a later date. If the stock goes up, you can buy it and turn an instant profit. If the stock goes down, you don't loose a dime. This is used as an incentive and reward system for employees to make an extra effort to increase the company's value. They usually don't charge you for the fucking options out of your paycheck either, they just give them to you and you decide whether to exercise them at any time up till their expiration (normally you pay a fee to purchase an option when you're trading stocks).
Wal-Mart's stock program amounts to a weasely way to cut employee wages by automatically reinvesting the wages into the company. Yes, you can sell the stocks you buy, and yes, right now Wal-Mart stock is growing - it's experienced a pretty big gain this year but it's hard to say where it's going in the long term, it's been depressed for the last 5 years. A Wal-Mart employee who wishes to invest money would be much better served following safe and sane practices for long-term growth than dumping all their eggs in the Wal-Mart basket and hoping for the best. Personally I don't think Wal-Mart is going to do well under union law reforms we're liable to see if Obama is elected, nor is it going to survive a post-industrial China with its current business model. If the stocks go back down to their 2003-2006 levels the $9 bucks they give you per paycheck is going to be a pittance compared to the $20 or so per stock you'll lose.
So yeah, fuck Wal-Mart, and fuck Hatter.
