More pay for hourly-wage workers in US
New York
FOR Anthony Rodriguez, every diaper for his two-year-old son means less money to put food on the table, or to fill up his car at the petrol station.
Mr Rodriguez, 26, makes those trade-offs even though he already receives above-minimum wages at Wal-Mart, and will make at least US$10 an hour next year, part of a move by Wal-Mart to raise wages for hundreds of thousands of workers.
"It's not going to help us. We need the hours," said Mr Rodriguez, a member of the union-supported workers' group, OUR Walmart.
He says that he constantly begs his managers for full-time work at the bustling Wal-Mart superstore in Rosemead, California, but is assigned as little as 18 hours a week. "I work as hard as I can, and when they offer me hours, I stay," he said. "But when the time comes, and I beg them for hours because I'm not going to afford rent, they don't want to help me."
The move to increase hourly wages by Wal-Mart, which employs 1.3 million workers as the country's largest private sector employer, is sending ripples through the retail industry. On Wednesday, the TJX Cos, which runs the discount chain TJ Maxx, said that it would follow suit, raising the pay of its hourly wage workers to at least US$9 later this year, and to US$10 next year.
With some progress on the hourly wage front, labour activists are highlighting another long-standing demand: more hours - and more consistent hours - for hourly-wage workers like Mr Rodriguez, something that they say will make as much a difference to workers' pocketbooks as an increase in wages.
Wal-Mart says that about half of its hourly-wage workers work part time, and that percentage can be even higher at other retailers. Stores change many of their workers' schedules week to week. And while many people prefer to work part time - for instance, college students eager for extra spending money - the number of part-timers who would prefer to work full time is surging, especially in the retailing and hospitality industries.
"Wages are just the first step in getting Wal-Mart on the road toward being the type of employer that treats its employees with respect, and part of that is to set some standards around hours and work schedules," said Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange, an online civil rights organisation that has campaigned for Wal-Mart to raise wages and give workers better hours.
"It's about creating an environment where employees are not just at the whim of Wal-Mart," he said.
At the heart of demands for higher wages and better hours, experts say, is the dwindling number of middle-class jobs. More primary wage earners who in the past may have held stable blue-collar jobs in manufacturing are now relying on low-wage jobs at Wal-Mart or other discount retailers to support their families.
Mr Rodriguez, who works at Wal-Mart assembling bikes and barbecue sets, supports his fiancée on an income that can be as little as US$900 a month. After spending about US$550 on rent, US$65 on petrol, as well as paying for food, diapers, mobile phone costs and insurance, he can rarely afford new clothes or recreation, and when hours are especially scarce, he borrows money from his sister. He is looking for a second job to supplement his income, most likely a graveyard shift as a security guard. He is already US$4,000 in debt.
At the same time, Wal-Mart and other retailers, facing stiff competition and shrinking margins, have taken a more severe approach to controlling labour costs, doing more to align staffing to customer traffic. Sometimes that involves sophisticated software that tracks the flow of customers and allows managers to assign just enough employees to handle the anticipated demand.
By hiring a large pool of hourly workers whose hours can expand or contract depending on business need, retailers can better sync hours to demand, experts say; posting schedules with limited advance notice allows managers to further minimise the risk of assigning too many hours. Restricting work hours also limits outlays on overtime and employee benefits.
"A number of companies have become more focused on keeping a very tight link between variations in consumer demand and the number of staffing hours," said Susan Lambert, an employment expert at the University of Chicago. "It's easier to do that if you have a lot of people who can be scheduled for very short shifts, and who are hungry for hours." She added, "But that makes it harder, harder and harder for these workers to move up the ladder in terms of wage growth." Wal-Mart has said that on top of raising wages, it will work to give some employees more control over their schedules.
Kory Lundberg, a company spokesman, said, "We're pursuing comprehensive changes to our hiring, training, compensation and scheduling programs." "The company is creating clearer career paths for associates so they know what is expected of them in order to move from entry-level positions to jobs with more responsibility, including full-time positions," he said. NYT
