Most big retail chains treat their
employees as nothing but a drain on profits.
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| One of the few retailers that treats workers right |
Retail
jobs at brick-and-mortar shops, however, can’t be exported.
But
wait, those aren’t jobs, they’re “jobettes.” They’re part-time, pay poverty
wages, offer no benefits, feature lousy schedules, come with little training,
and boast few advancement opportunities.
Most
big retail chains treat their employees as nothing but a drain on profits
rather than an asset worth investing in. Sales people are typically paid only
$10 an hour, clerks get only $9.70, and cashiers just $9.
Even worse, 94 percent of retailers define full-time work as only 30 hours a week. People can’t make ends meet on that, and America can’t have a healthy economy without a solid middle class. However, 15 million Americans are in retail work now, and it’s to be our second-biggest source of new jobs for the next decade.
Well,
shrug the Powers That Be, the retail giants must compete with low prices, so
they have no choice but to keep cutting corners on their workforce.
As
we say in Texas: bovine excrement!
Just
look at Trader Joe’s, where full-time jobs start at $40,000 (NOTE: they have one store in RI in Warwick - it's really great!). Or at Costco, where
retaining employees is a priority and 98 percent of managers are promoted from
within. Low-price chains that invest directly in workers are reaping industry
highs in performance, morale, customer satisfaction, and profits. Bad jobs are
not a retail necessity or a competitive advantage — just a corporate choice.
A
new initiative called the Retail Justice Alliance is encouraging U.S. employers
and policymakers to turn retail jobs into good jobs that spread a middle-class
standard of living and rebuild our grassroots economy. To learn more and join
in, go to www.retailjusticealliance.org.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio
commentator, writer, and public speaker. He's also editor of the populist
newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org