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There is a narrative that Wal-mart pays low wages, I think its quite apt as most positions do pay quite low, I worked at Wal Mart while in college and saw it fi

There is a narrative that Wal-mart pays low wages, I think its quite apt as most positions do pay quite low, I worked at Wal Mart while in college and saw it first hand. A few things to note, certain positions do pay well, store managers for one, I know for a fact that over 20 years ago certain store managers would see over $300k in yearly compensation. In addition once I got into tech after college I worked with a few walmart.com ex-employees, and these employees stated that part of their bonus was tied to a percentage of sales walmart.com made and they said the bonus pay was wildly lucrative. So Wal Mart does pay well in fact if you are in the right position. Considering keeping your shelves(and online distribution centers) stocked is the lifeblood of the company it behooves them to have a healthy circulatory system and not have drivers who do not deliver on time or get into accidents.

pavel_lishin 3y ago
> So Wal Mart does pay well in fact if you are in the right position. This feels like a globally true statement, regardless of the employer, no?
- resolutebat 3y ago
  Most companies don't have 14,000 of these "right" positions.
  - jonlucc 3y ago
    Most companies don't have 2.1M employees.
  - filmgirlcw 3y ago
    14,000 out of their total number of employees is such a drop in the bucket though. If you can get hired as a Wal-Mart trucker, from what I understand, you're the best of the best. Also, consider there are like 3.5 million truck drivers in the US - only a tiny percentage of those can get jobs at places that pay as well as Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart has 1.6 million US employees alone, so you're talking less than 1% of total jobs when you say 14,000.
- fuzztester 3y ago
  yes. or of the industry. it's called supply and demand. econ 101.
packetlost 3y ago
Walmart is somewhat notorious in the OTR trucking industry for having high wages, but very high barrier to entry. You need a near perfect driving record among other things. OTR trucking overall pays pretty well, but it's an extremely physically and emotionally taxing job that doesn't really get the credit it deserves. How would you feel if you were "home" for a weekend every 2 weeks and living in 20sqft the rest of the time?
- WalterBright 3y ago
  > You need a near perfect driving record among other things. Absolutely. If a driver is at fault in an accident, Walmart will get sued for $zillions. I once knew a middle aged man laying tile. I asked him why was he laying tile for crap wages. He said he lost his trucking license because he had a DUI (not while trucking). Doing construction was the only job he could get. He was quite bitter about it.
  - packetlost 3y ago
    Pretty sure a DUI bars you from holding a CDL of any kind, not specifically a trucking license. I don't see a problem with that at all.
    - throwaway2037 3y ago
      Wow, if true, that is harsh. If you made a mistake at 18 or 19 years old, then you are condemned for life to never hold a CDL (commercial driving license). That doesn't see fair.
      - stavros 3y ago
        I'm assuming that's if you get the DUI while you have a trucking license.
    - packetlost 3y ago
      In WI, you lose it for a year on first offense. Second offense is life. Source: https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf
swozey 3y ago
Store Managers are a very different type of pay structure though. They're more like someone from Corporate vs Retail. They get paid massive bonuses based on numbers their stores hit. I worked at a few Home Depots and IIRC the store managers were clearing 150-250 while the assistant managers I think were in the 60-80k range. Then us floor staff were 9-15, maybe 20. This was 2008ish. I remember the biggest HD in my state or somewhere the manager was getting I think 500k-1mil+. You can infer it from the numbers the store does and their bonus percentage whatever that was. My mom was an HR director there so corporate as well and she made somwhere in 130-200+ not sure exact.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >They get paid massive bonuses based on numbers their stores hit. Isn't that ... good? The demographic in every region or neighborhood is different and has different tastes, incomes and budgets, so it's your job as store manager to identify the needs of that demographic, and order merchandise and organize it on shelves, run sales, etc. in order to move as much of it as possible to maximize sales and profits. Sort of like targeted advertising but IRL and less privacy invasive. Paying based on this seems like the only way to incentivize this performance.
  - LegitShady 3y ago
    In university before co-op, many years ago, I worked for home depot part time. the line employee profit share was really bad. the management profit share was better. They understaffed my department for long periods of time to make their numbers look better. They were making $15k/day in profit on my department but they wouldn't schedule a second employee so that there was someone there to help people when person #1 was on the saw, on the forklift, or covering lunch for the next department over too. I quit mid june after I realized they weren't hiring/scheduling more staff for the summer even though every day was very busy, constantly running between helping customers and taking care of other things. There are a lot of ways to make profit and show good metrics that aren't good for line employees.
    - 3y ago
colechristensen 3y ago
I worked in tech somewhere behind walmart.com and the pay/bonuses were standard silicon valley, non FAANG. More or less median.
Spooky23 3y ago
Retail is always a flat pyramid. GMs get paid. The guy who ran the CompUSA that I worked in in college cleared $250k in the mid 90s. Even a CVS will pay the GM well if they hit targets. And if they miss the targets, they get purged and there's a thousand people to replace them.
shmatt 3y ago
Walmart Global Tech is above average tech pay, just a step or 2 behind FAANG. One downside is annual stock grants instead of 4 year, so there is a lot less upside
bawolff 3y ago
I feel like that is true of all companies. The people with limited responsibilities who are easily replacable get paid nothing. Jobs that are hard to hire competent people for get paid $$$$. Supply and demand in action.
washadjeffmad 3y ago
A friend went to Harvard to join Waffle House (corporate). These are obviously lucrative ventures that yield reliable returns, such as voting blocs to hold over your (not-so) local congresspersons' heads during election seasons.
nativeit 3y ago
Store managers are also generally expected to devote their entire lives to the job, and are imminently replaceable. What generosity Walmart may offer is off the backs of the lowest earning workers who frequently require taxpayer assistance to survive, and thus store manager’s bonuses are subsidized by the local communities Walmart most likely harmed by setting up shop to begin with. None of this is as simple as n=$$$ so Brand X is morally justified. It’s all symptoms of larger societal issues.

pavel_lishin 3y ago

> So Wal Mart does pay well in fact if you are in the right position. This feels like a globally true statement, regardless of the employer, no?

resolutebat 3y ago
Most companies don't have 14,000 of these "right" positions.
- jonlucc 3y ago
  Most companies don't have 2.1M employees.
- filmgirlcw 3y ago
  14,000 out of their total number of employees is such a drop in the bucket though. If you can get hired as a Wal-Mart trucker, from what I understand, you're the best of the best. Also, consider there are like 3.5 million truck drivers in the US - only a tiny percentage of those can get jobs at places that pay as well as Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart has 1.6 million US employees alone, so you're talking less than 1% of total jobs when you say 14,000.
fuzztester 3y ago
yes. or of the industry. it's called supply and demand. econ 101.

packetlost 3y ago

Walmart is somewhat notorious in the OTR trucking industry for having high wages, but very high barrier to entry. You need a near perfect driving record among other things. OTR trucking overall pays pretty well, but it's an extremely physically and emotionally taxing job that doesn't really get the credit it deserves. How would you feel if you were "home" for a weekend every 2 weeks and living in 20sqft the rest of the time?

WalterBright 3y ago
> You need a near perfect driving record among other things. Absolutely. If a driver is at fault in an accident, Walmart will get sued for $zillions. I once knew a middle aged man laying tile. I asked him why was he laying tile for crap wages. He said he lost his trucking license because he had a DUI (not while trucking). Doing construction was the only job he could get. He was quite bitter about it.
- packetlost 3y ago
  Pretty sure a DUI bars you from holding a CDL of any kind, not specifically a trucking license. I don't see a problem with that at all.
  - throwaway2037 3y ago
    Wow, if true, that is harsh. If you made a mistake at 18 or 19 years old, then you are condemned for life to never hold a CDL (commercial driving license). That doesn't see fair.
    - stavros 3y ago
      I'm assuming that's if you get the DUI while you have a trucking license.
  - packetlost 3y ago
    In WI, you lose it for a year on first offense. Second offense is life. Source: https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/dmv/shared/cdl-disq.pdf

swozey 3y ago

Store Managers are a very different type of pay structure though. They're more like someone from Corporate vs Retail. They get paid massive bonuses based on numbers their stores hit. I worked at a few Home Depots and IIRC the store managers were clearing 150-250 while the assistant managers I think were in the 60-80k range. Then us floor staff were 9-15, maybe 20. This was 2008ish. I remember the biggest HD in my state or somewhere the manager was getting I think 500k-1mil+. You can infer it from the numbers the store does and their bonus percentage whatever that was. My mom was an HR director there so corporate as well and she made somwhere in 130-200+ not sure exact.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>They get paid massive bonuses based on numbers their stores hit. Isn't that ... good? The demographic in every region or neighborhood is different and has different tastes, incomes and budgets, so it's your job as store manager to identify the needs of that demographic, and order merchandise and organize it on shelves, run sales, etc. in order to move as much of it as possible to maximize sales and profits. Sort of like targeted advertising but IRL and less privacy invasive. Paying based on this seems like the only way to incentivize this performance.
- LegitShady 3y ago
  In university before co-op, many years ago, I worked for home depot part time. the line employee profit share was really bad. the management profit share was better. They understaffed my department for long periods of time to make their numbers look better. They were making $15k/day in profit on my department but they wouldn't schedule a second employee so that there was someone there to help people when person #1 was on the saw, on the forklift, or covering lunch for the next department over too. I quit mid june after I realized they weren't hiring/scheduling more staff for the summer even though every day was very busy, constantly running between helping customers and taking care of other things. There are a lot of ways to make profit and show good metrics that aren't good for line employees.
  - 3y ago

colechristensen 3y ago

I worked in tech somewhere behind walmart.com and the pay/bonuses were standard silicon valley, non FAANG. More or less median.

Spooky23 3y ago

Retail is always a flat pyramid. GMs get paid. The guy who ran the CompUSA that I worked in in college cleared $250k in the mid 90s. Even a CVS will pay the GM well if they hit targets. And if they miss the targets, they get purged and there's a thousand people to replace them.

shmatt 3y ago

Walmart Global Tech is above average tech pay, just a step or 2 behind FAANG. One downside is annual stock grants instead of 4 year, so there is a lot less upside

bawolff 3y ago

I feel like that is true of all companies. The people with limited responsibilities who are easily replacable get paid nothing. Jobs that are hard to hire competent people for get paid $$$$. Supply and demand in action.

washadjeffmad 3y ago

A friend went to Harvard to join Waffle House (corporate). These are obviously lucrative ventures that yield reliable returns, such as voting blocs to hold over your (not-so) local congresspersons' heads during election seasons.

nativeit 3y ago

Store managers are also generally expected to devote their entire lives to the job, and are imminently replaceable. What generosity Walmart may offer is off the backs of the lowest earning workers who frequently require taxpayer assistance to survive, and thus store manager’s bonuses are subsidized by the local communities Walmart most likely harmed by setting up shop to begin with. None of this is as simple as n=$$$ so Brand X is morally justified. It’s all symptoms of larger societal issues.