There'll be a bit more jingle in the pockets of Walmart workers in Massachusetts.
The Boys from Bentonville have settled a nearly decade-old class-action suit, and will be paying $40M out to upwards of 87,500 workers (current and past).
The class action lawsuit was filed in 2001 and accused the retailer of denying workers rest and meal breaks, refusing to pay overtime and manipulating time cards to lower employees’ pay.
Payouts will range from $400 - $2.5K, and the article I saw in yesterday's Boston Globe stated that the average worker will be getting $734. (Must be the new math. By my calculation, in order for 87,500 people to average $734, the payout would have to be $64M, not $40M. And that's without the lawyers. However, this could be one of those mode-mean-median situations. We've ruled out "mean", so maybe this is the mode. Or the median. Man, what a pain in the butt to have a parochial school education compounded by a couple of years spent in grad school at MIT. Can't just take the numbers on face value.)
Whatever the amount is, it's probably not enough to make up for having to actually work at a Walmart. But it's also a nice boost to someone making $12.66/hour (which is what Wally-workers earn in Massachusetts). A $400 payout translates into 31.5 hours of work - nothing to sneeze into a Puff about, especially these days.
Let us hope that the workers use the money wisely, and don't spend it all loading up carts full of crap they don't need. Although, having just dropped a birthday bundle on really good bras for the first time in my life, who am I to carp about non-essentials.
Anyway, according to Bloomberg,
The Massachusetts agreement brings the total amount of Walmart wage-and-hour lawsuit settlements to almost $900 million.
$40M, $900M.
We think 'ka-ching'; Walmart just yawns.
In their last quarter reported, Walmart's revenues neared $100B, with earnings of $3B.
So the $40M they'll be paying out in Massachusetts barely makes a dent.
Which makes you kinda-sorta wonder why Walmart has historically had such heinous overtime, hours, and lunch break practices in place. It's not like they'd be living on the edge if they didn't behave like such inhumane, rapacious jerks. Not to mention the fact that, if they did have a better reputation for treating their workers decently, more people would be inclined to shop there.
Surely, no one hops in the mini-van to head out on a shopping excursion saying to themselves, 'Hot damn, I can't wait to pull into the parking lot at Walmart. Just knowing that they treat their employee like crap - and that that 70 year old greeter is going without lunch - makes me want to buy an extra canned ham and flat-screen TV.'
And just as surely, someone who at present loathes and despises Walmart might be more inclined to go there to load up on Cottonelle and tube socks if they thought that the company, while maybe not the type of store they really want in their town, at least behaves decently towards the poor souls who don't have much choice, except to work there.
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