GROUP ASSIGNMENT OF CASE STUDY OF ‘WAL-MART WOMEN’ 0 Introduction Wal-Mart Store is an multinational retail corporation which runs the chain of large discount department stores and warehouse stores in American. This Wal-Mart Store was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. The company was incorporated on October 31, 1969 and publicly traded on New York Stock Exchange in 1972. This Wal-Mart Store is the second largest public corporation around the world and it is also the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees. Wal-Mart remains a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton Family, who own over 50 percent of Wal-Mart. This company also one of the world’s most valuable companies. Although Wal-Mart Store is the second largest public corporation around the world, it also face the biggest employee headache which is the class action lawsuit claiming the company discriminated against female employees. Essentially, there are two main reasons why women will earn less than men. They may have less education or less working experience or choose to work in an occupations that pay less than those that men choose. The other reason is that they may face discrimination which means that the earn is not equally to the skills they do have. In this lawsuit, it is claimed : that Wal-Mart pays women less than men even when the women have the same amount of experience, that earnings differences between men and women at Wal-Mart grow wider over time, that Wal-Mart does not offer equal training opportunies to its women employees that Wal-Mart prevents women from working in departments typically staffed by men and which typically pay more, and that Wal-Mart refuses to post all management openings, thus limiting women's opportunities to apply for management positions.
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GROUP ASSIGNMENT OF CASE STUDY OF ‘WAL-MART WOMEN’
0
Introduction
Wal-Mart Store is an multinational retail corporation which runs the chain of large
discount department stores and warehouse stores in American. This Wal-Mart Store was founded
by Sam Walton in 1962. The company was incorporated on October 31, 1969 and publicly
traded on New York Stock Exchange in 1972. This Wal-Mart Store is the second largest public
corporation around the world and it is also the biggest private employer in the world with over
two million employees. Wal-Mart remains a family-owned business, as the company is
controlled by the Walton Family, who own over 50 percent of Wal-Mart. This company also one
of the world’s most valuable companies.
Although Wal-Mart Store is the second largest public corporation around the world, it also
face the biggest employee headache which is the class action lawsuit claiming the company
discriminated against female employees. Essentially, there are two main reasons why women
will earn less than men. They may have less education or less working experience or choose to
work in an occupations that pay less than those that men choose. The other reason is that they
may face discrimination which means that the earn is not equally to the skills they do have. In
this lawsuit, it is claimed :
that Wal-Mart pays women less than men even when the women have the same amount
of experience,
that earnings differences between men and women at Wal-Mart grow wider over time,
that Wal-Mart does not offer equal training opportunies to its women employees
that Wal-Mart prevents women from working in departments typically staffed by men
and which typically pay more,
and that Wal-Mart refuses to post all management openings, thus limiting women's
opportunities to apply for management positions.
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Case Background
The six female workers who working in Wal-Mart is the largest ever in American
civil rights history. This is a case accusing Wal-Mart stores which is discriminating cases
against US female workers. Two points had allege that women employed in Wal-Mart
stores according to the 2010 court of Appeals opinion which is women was paid less
than men, besides that the other opinion is receive fewer and wait longer for promotions
to in store management positions than men. They were asking the Wal-Mart company
compensate them or any other women who worked for Wal-Mart since December 26,
1998 which suffered from the sexual discrimination cases. If Wal-Mart were loses the
case, it would cost Wal-Mart company many billions of dollar since the female workers
who worked in Wal-Mart Company had been estimated as many as 1.5 billion to 2
million.
Wal-Mart stores is the world's biggest retailer that owns more than 8400 stores and
had over 2100000 employees worldwide. The law suit was launched in June 2001 that by
six female Wal-Mart employees was the class action lawsuit that workers claiming the
Wal-Mart company about the promotions, pay, management training and also job
assignments. The six women asked for pay back and compensation for all 1.6 million
female employees against who has discriminated . A statistical expect , Richard Drogin, a
professor at California State University at Hayward was hired by the six women who
filled the discrimination lawsuit to analyze an employee records. There was two main
groups which is hourly employees at lower levels such as store cashiers, associates and
stock people and the salaried management employees. Salaried management employees
can be divided into two groups, the lower level are those manage a single store while
the higher level are those manage an entire district or region. Since Wal-Mart promotes
predominantly from within, workers typically progress from being an upper hourly
employee to management trainee, to store manager and finally to region manager.
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The six women also hired Marc Bendick, a labor economist to against Wal-Mart.
Marc Bendick noted that the company had no trouble in promoting women in their
management. 34.5 percent of in-store salaried managers were women while 56.5 percent
of 20 comparable large were female salaried managers. The Wal-Mart would have about
4000 in-store female manager, 466 more in corporate headquarters female managers, about
150 for “blue-collar” nonstore establishments, 107 more in other nonstore establishment
and about 100 in reporting establishment.
William T. Bielby, a professor at University of California, who also hired by the
women stated in his analyze and report of Wal-Mart ‘s hiring practices that the managers
at the Wal-Mart was given no written policies to select candidates who met the
minimum criteria of promotion and in setting the exact salaries. So, gender stereotypes
always influence personal decisions moreover women not considered by their actual skills
but was shaped by their manager’s stereotypical beliefs about them. Arturo Mireles who
is a store manager proving that he only rely on subjective factors such as team work
and ethics in making decision about promotion to Department Manager or Support
Manager because he has no written criteria to be a guideline in his decision. The
company policy not state the detail about when and how to adjust the payment or
monitoring the number of employee who receive increases.
However, William T. Bielby also note that the Wal-Mart managers believe that in
management position, women have same qualified as men so the discrimination on the
women must be based on individual decision of the manager-self not attributed to the
Wal-Mart and the company was trying hard to make sure their employees get equal
opportunity in their work.
There are about more than a hundred of female employees who were came
forward providing their received critism about their work in the Wal-Mart. A store
manager in Utah for example was told to his female assistant that retail is “tough” and
“not appropriate” for women while in Texas, a women were told by their manager to be
“bitches” in the Wal-Mart management and a supervisor in the same state said to his
female management trainee that he don’t like college graduates and female manager. The
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same woman also told by her next manager to find a husband and have children. In
Florida, the manager explain they paid more than women because they are here to build
career and housewives just need to earn extra money in retail.
In contrary, the company’s lawyer claim that there a large group of injured
women to handle and every of them may had different or varied experience of injury in
Wal-Mart not like the cases that were had by the six women. Wal-Mart moreover used
the different system for compensating and promoting their employees while the wages
payment based on their individual manager not by the uniform company policy. The
company also claim they have held so many programs to make sure everyone get same
regardless of race and gender.
The company has started programs for achieving diversity in early year of 1990s
with the everywhere posted of written antidiscrimination policy while the managers were
told about the gender sa laried composition and support women as “reflect the
community”. They must set an annual goals which are “realistic”, “achievable”, “made
sense”, and “weren’t worse than the year before” to increase the women representation
in their area working place. Late Sam Walton begun the program which allowing the
women entering the management job without relocate their home however the program
was be a stranger today after the death of him.
In April 2010, the women case was finally got a class action and December 6,
2010, the Supreme Court decide to hear the case and make decision for the final
determination which effect the fate of 1.5 million of Wal-Mart female workers and
impact on the company significant material finance but some analysts the company will
settle the case before or after the Supreme Court decided.
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Ethical Issue
Ethical issue that was raised by the case of Wal-Mart Women was discrimination women
in the workplace. Job discrimination is an unethical behavior. Discrimination means to
distinguish someone on the basic of prejudice or morally attitude. There are six women who had
worked in Wal-Mart sued Wal-Mart about their paid and opportunity of promotion is less than
the men work in Wal-Mart although their experience, qualification and performance is better
than men.
Firstly, we can found that women employee in Wal-Mart earn money less than the men.
Based on the research of Richard Drogin. He is a statistical expert and professor come from
California State University. He found that Wal-Mart employees are divided into two group.
There are salaried management in high level and hourly employees in low level. Salaried
managers can earn $50,000 in but hourly employees just can earn $18,000 in a year in 2001. For
example, the annual salary of district manager, men can made $239,519 but women just made
$177,149. Among full-time employees, women get less than $5000 compare to men.
Secondly, the opportunity of promotion of women is less than the men. According to
Richard Drogin, chance of women will be promoted from an assistant manager to store manager
is 10.12 years while men just need 8.64. In addition, he found that women per formance is better
than men. For a performance rating of job sales association, on scale of 1-7, 1 is low and 7 is
high. Men get 3.68 and women get 3.75. This figure showed that women has high performance
than women. Factors of women get less promotion because of relocate and policy of company in
staffing. Another sociology expert William T. Bielby, professor University of California. His
report noted that however a company have guidelines for the criteria of promotion, but didn’t
have written policies for manager’s guidance. Form the research, we can found that glass ceiling
will affect in making decisions about promotion. In a case, a store manager told to his female
assistant about retail is not suitable to women.
Then, compensation received by the men and women worker in Wal-Mart also different.
A research from Drogin in 1996, women were paid less $0.35 per hour than a men. The pay gap
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between men and women continuous increase to $1.16 per hour in 2001. Another statistic in
1996 showed that, male sales associations get more $0.20 per hour than female sales associations.
Employee in the company have equity, they are fair to have benefit such as retirement benefits,
medical benefits, bonus and so on. Compensation become a motivation for worker.
Next, we noted that less women participated in management of Wal-Mart. A labor
economist, marc Bendick noted another retailer company has 56.5% of female included in
management but Wal-Mart just has 34.5%. So Wal-Mart need to have more than 4000 female
participated in high level of management position. Nowadays, international company promote
diversity in the company. Opinion from men and women is different. So that, company can
receive a lot of vary business ideas.
According to the statistic above, Wal-Mart suspected in job discrimination. Early in the
1990, Wal-Mart implement a written antidiscrimination rule to overall company but not widely
used. From the lawsuit, Wal-Mart may face a problem of reparation about $10 billion and have
to increase 60% the pay to employee. As a result, Wal-Mart’s shares already fell 3.9%.
Government and agencies especially Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) need
to enforce the law, Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prevent from discrimination and protect them
based on hiring, compensation, religion, race and sex.
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Question 1
What financial impact do you think the lawsuit could potentially have on Wal-Mart? Do
you think the women deserve to win their lawsuit? What if the outcome of the case cost
Wal-Mart so much it had to lay off thousand of its workers and close stores?
Financial impact is an expense or fall in revenue arising out of a disaster, change in market
conditions, failure of a product, or other events under or beyond a management's control. Wal-
Mart is such an effective competitor that it is gradually forcing down the wages and living
standards of retail workers who aren't even employed by Wal-Mart. The company could face
billions of dollars in demands for back pay and punitive damages. The real Wal-Mart conflict
isn't between capital and labor. It is a battle involving consumers and cost-efficient producers
against traditional retailers, organized labor, and community activists.
Women deserve to win this lawsuit because they also has a rights as a worker or employee.
Every working female enjoys the same employee rights that are bestowed on a male colleague. It
is illegal to discriminate against a female employee at any stage of employment. A qualified
female applicant cannot be denied employment because of being a women. S he has equal right to
promotion, vacation leave and other benefits provided by the employer. The Equal Pay Act
requires that both women and men be given equal pay for equal work in the same organization.
The Wal Mart company will face of problem from their shareholders because they doesn’t
trust them anymore and maybe they will go away to find other company and wanted their money
back. From this matter,Wal Mart also decrease their profit because they cannot run a bussiness
properly due to lack of worker and so on. So it seems that during the recession when
management cost saving strategy appeared to be foremost, with layoffs being the first action
usually taken, the impact on surviving employees, their productivity, the reputation of the
company and real costs savings has been underemphasized.