Walmart's
announcement that it would start paying all its current workers at least $9 an hour in 2015 and $10 an hour in 2016 was a welcome one. But, the supposedly retired Steven Greenhouse reports, there's a reason worker activists say
they're not through fighting for better wages and working conditions:
[Labor historian Nelson] Lichtenstein said Walmart didn’t go far enough to raise pay, and that its move would still leave many part-time workers in poverty. For an $8.50-an-hour employee working 25 hours a week, a raise to $10 will mean earnings of $250 a week or $13,000 a year, up from the current $212.50 a week or $11,050 a year. At that level, many workers will continue turning to food stamps and Medicaid. [...]
Many Walmart stores used to run 70% full-time employees and 30% part-time, but now at many stores, less than 50% of the employees are full-time. Lichtenstein called on Walmart to return to 70% full-time.
Hours and scheduling matter—a lot—to worker pay, but that's not the only hardship Walmart's unpredictable scheduling practices inflict:
[Walmart worker Lisa] Pietro said she recently worked until 10 one night and then had to return at 5am the next day. She said she got just four hours of sleep that night. “They’re not getting my 110% when I walk through the door,” she said.
They're not getting her 110 percent, and she's not getting the rest she needs, even as brutal schedules like that don't translate into enough money to live on at $9 or $10 an hour and 20 or 25 hours a week. Walmart doubtless hoped that a small raise—accompanied by a lot of publicity about it—would take some of the steam out of workers' fight for better jobs and more power in the workplace. But the workers should instead take this message: You're having an effect. It's time to double down.