10 Companies Paying Americans the Least

[thelakelander]

Walmart gets more attention because they are MUCH bigger. They employ 2.2 million people vs Target at 360,000.

Revenue for Walmart is $469 Billion vs Target at $73 Billion.

Walmart also has a reputation for squeezing their suppliers so they also have to make cuts.

Not doubt they get more attention because of size, which is what JayBird pointed out about the 10 ten list in general.  However, they all are doing the same things. I'm not sure any of them are morally less corrupt.

[finehoe]

Today, the share of the nation's income going to wages, which for decades was more than 50 percent, is at a record low of 43 percent, while the share of the nation's income going to corporate profits is at a record high. The economic lives of Americans today paint a picture of mass downward mobility. According to a National Employment Law Project study in 2012, low-wage jobs (paying less than $13.83 an hour) made up 21 percent of the jobs lost during the recession but more than half of the jobs created since the recession ended. Middle-income jobs (paying between $13.84 and $21.13 hourly) made up three-fifths of the jobs lost during the recession but just 22 percent of the jobs created since.

In 2013, America's three largest private-sector employers are all low-wage retailers: Wal-Mart, Yum! Brands (which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken) and McDonald's. In 1960, the three largest employers were high-wage unionized manufacturers or utilities: General Motors, AT&T, and Ford.

http://prospect.org/article/40-year-slump

[TheCat]

Based on what I'm reading Walmart is a whole other breed of animal. The lower end wages at Wal-Mart are similar to Target's but management wages are way better at Target. Plus, there is the happiness factor. Target, apparently, has happy employees (and COSTCO has really happy employees).

I just saw the below article. It is about Walmart holding a food drive at one of their stores...for their employees, to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Talk about a welfare mentality. The audacity of wal-mart asking their customers to provide food for their employees is amazing. It's almost thrilling.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/11/is_walmarts_request_of_associa.html#incart_river_default%23incart_m-rpt-2

[fsquid]

Today, the share of the nation's income going to wages, which for decades was more than 50 percent, is at a record low of 43 percent, while the share of the nation's income going to corporate profits is at a record high. The economic lives of Americans today paint a picture of mass downward mobility. According to a National Employment Law Project study in 2012, low-wage jobs (paying less than $13.83 an hour) made up 21 percent of the jobs lost during the recession but more than half of the jobs created since the recession ended. Middle-income jobs (paying between $13.84 and $21.13 hourly) made up three-fifths of the jobs lost during the recession but just 22 percent of the jobs created since.

In 2013, America's three largest private-sector employers are all low-wage retailers: Wal-Mart, Yum! Brands (which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken) and McDonald's. In 1960, the three largest employers were high-wage unionized manufacturers or utilities: General Motors, AT&T, and Ford.

http://prospect.org/article/40-year-slump

We are becoming a retail/service economy, and retail/service economies don't have the jobs to sustain a middle class. That's why our middle class is shrinking

[JayBird]

I tend to think that this generation is lazier than the last, which was lazier than the one before it and so on and so on. It easy to point fingers at Corporate America and overall corporate greed because people in those positions make it so easy. It is America's version of royalty. As for having to be "trapped" in a job that is intended as a stepping stone, that is purely because they lack the ambition to move forward. There are options for them, but it calls for hard work. It calls for long hours, studying for a job you want, sacrificing time at the bar on weekends and missing a few date nights. The primary reason, in my opinion, that they are/feel "stuck" in those dead end jobs is because they choose to have free time with family, friends or themselves instead of going after what they want. There is absolutely nothin wrong with this, however they cannot do so and then blame the big corporations for their lack of initiative. I know my view is skewed, this year has been the first year I haven't worked two or three jobs since graduating high school in 1999. Those jobs, at the regular across the board minimum wage levels provided for my degrees, taught me how to be humble, how to deal with all sorts of people and how to take responsibility for your choices right or wrong. I think the real cause of the shift hasn't been corporations or mom and pop stores or whom is/was in the White House. I think it has more to do with our upbringing. This generation that has been entering the workforce is the first one that got participation trophies in pop warner football, that had parents who bought "things" because they didn't want their children to struggle like they had to. I grew up watching my dad work at the township road department and cutting lawns at night while my mom drove a school bus and hocked cheap jewelry at a kiosk in our mall. But all of their kids were raised and they too for multiple jobs until we achieved the level we wanted. Are the companies bad, of course. But guess what, chances are when Al runs out of money and the a/c at home breaks, he dips into the pizzeria to get it fixed. The majority of the time, small business does just as much immoral acts as the major corporations it is just the scale of such acts are different. I don't justify those actions by large or small, but is it really right to pick out the big ones just because they are bigger?

[finehoe]

The primary reason, in my opinion, that they are/feel "stuck" in those dead end jobs is because they choose to have free time with family, friends or themselves instead of going after what they want.

Oh, please.  As many people have noted, a disproportionate share of the jobs being created in this upturn are in low-paying sectors like restaurants and retail trade. This means that even the people who are able to find work in the current labor market conditions are unlikely to get a job that will provide enough income to support a family.

This is clearly bad news for large segments of the workforce. The question is why are we seeing so many bad jobs?

It is people's desperation that is forcing them to take bad jobs that they would not have considered otherwise. The bad jobs were always there, but most people had better alternatives so they didn't take them. What's changed from the period when we didn't see so many bad jobs is that we have a much weaker labor market. The weakness of the labor market is the key factor in this story, not that people are "lazier".

[fsquid]

so what's the solution?

[finehoe]

If people are more lazy nowadays, how is it that productivity has increased strongly:

U.S. productivity growth has averaged 2 to 3 percent per year in the period 1995-2004, compared with less than 1.5 percent per year from 1973 to 1995. The strong productivity growth of the past decade is comparable with the 1948-73 period. The two peak years in the recent period have equalled the peaks of the earlier 1948-73 period. The improvement in productivity growth has survived the stock market bust of 2000, the subsequent decline in investment, a recession, rising fiscal deficits, wars, and skyrocketing oil prices.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w11354

Yet those gains aren't being passed on to the workers.

[CityLife]

Is that increase in productivity due to harder workers or better technology?

[finehoe]

[peestandingup]

I know my view is skewed, this year has been the first year I haven't worked two or three jobs since graduating high school in 1999. Those jobs, at the regular across the board minimum wage levels provided for my degrees, taught me how to be humble, how to deal with all sorts of people and how to take responsibility for your choices right or wrong.

Lol. Try doing that now. I think you'd be in for a rude awakening. I wont embarrass you by posting tuition cost stats. Like I said. Out of touch with today's reality.

BTW, I'm not a "youngin" either & was in college around the same time you were.

[fsquid]

I know my view is skewed, this year has been the first year I haven't worked two or three jobs since graduating high school in 1999. Those jobs, at the regular across the board minimum wage levels provided for my degrees, taught me how to be humble, how to deal with all sorts of people and how to take responsibility for your choices right or wrong.

Lol. Try doing that now. I think you'd be in for a rude awakening. I wont embarrass you by posting tuition cost stats. Like I said. Out of touch with today's reality.

BTW, I'm not a "youngin" either & was in college around the same time you were.

I agree.  The notion of working your way through school is exponentially tougher now than even 15 years ago.

[JayBird]

You're correct that it is harder now, mostly because college is now a requirement when though it was important 15 years ago it was more of an option.

As for those looking for better jobs: a quick search of my employer, JPMorgan Chase & Co., shows 1,629 current openings in my division and just in the United States, with the lowest paid one offering $52k located in Cincinnati, OH. I think company wide we have something near 4,000 openings. So ... Where are all those people that need a good paying job? Well, for one they do not want to move (I work between two cities so the 1200mi commute can be a pain), maybe they chose to go into a trade, my mechanic friend owns a transmission shop on the southside off Philips hwy has been looking for good mechanic. His others make around $60k yet almost 6 months searching still has an opening.

Or maybe, just maybe, those jobs require you to have ambition and drive to get the job done, not skate through a shift stocking shelves or counting money. The jobs are there if they want them, but nothing worth it in life comes easy.

[CityLife]

Is that increase in productivity due to harder workers or better technology?

more productive workers.  when you look at gdp divided by number of workers as a measure of productivity, the tech impact on profitability and worker productivity is pretty exponential.

I'm not sure you can accurately quantify how much more productive today's workers are that work with a computer vs. a typewriter/notepad, or a more smoothly automated manufacturing system vs. something done manually.

I worked at Winn Dixie in high school when the first self checkout machines opened (late 90's). They basically enabled the same level of productivity to occur with one less cashier and 1 to 2 less baggers. It would take a ridiculously thorough study to figure how much easier all jobs are today vs. in the past due to technology.

[avonjax]

The primary reason, in my opinion, that they are/feel "stuck" in those dead end jobs is because they choose to have free time with family, friends or themselves instead of going after what they want.

Oh, please.  As many people have noted, a disproportionate share of the jobs being created in this upturn are in low-paying sectors like restaurants and retail trade. This means that even the people who are able to find work in the current labor market conditions are unlikely to get a job that will provide enough income to support a family.

This is clearly bad news for large segments of the workforce. The question is why are we seeing so many bad jobs?

It is people's desperation that is forcing them to take bad jobs that they would not have considered otherwise. The bad jobs were always there, but most people had better alternatives so they didn't take them. What's changed from the period when we didn't see so many bad jobs is that we have a much weaker labor market. The weakness of the labor market is the key factor in this story, not that people are "lazier".

You are absolutely correct!