Word: wage
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...pressure is providing impetus to attempt new things. Back at headquarters, Wal-Mart is also trying to improve its standing as a corporate citizen. The company has overhauled its wage-and-benefits package and rolled out an ambitious sustainability program that even cynics are praising. Using its negotiating muscle against rising health-care costs, the company expanded the number of drugs available in its $4 generic-prescription program to 361 drug products...
What Wal-Mart does matters--certainly to its 1.35 million U.S. employees but also to its competitors, since Wal-Mart ends up effectively setting wage rates in retailing. And to organic farmers, whose industry has been turbocharged by the company's decision to promote organic foods; and to refrigeration manufacturers, who must create greener equipment to meet this giant customer's desire to shrink its carbon footprint. And to the economy itself: the "Wal-Mart effect" of those $4 generics is being cited as one reason drug prices are falling after years of double-digit inflation, just as its entry...
...surprisingly, the hourlies have a lot to say. They want more flexibility--at least half are students, retirees or second-job holders--more opportunity and more attention paid. And, of course, they want more pay. The company raised wages in 1,200 stores last year and expanded its 10% employee discount on nonfoods to include produce. Long-term employees asked for an extra week's pay instead of an extra week's vacation. (They got it.) Workers with less experience asked for quarterly, not annual, bonuses if their store met targets. (They got it.) Wal-Mart, in turn, wanted help...
...Mart's ardent, union-backed critics such as Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart, these improvements are just crumbs from the corporate table. Wal-Mart's national hourly-wage average of $10.74 is more or less competitive with Target or Kmart, but its total package still lags behind union competitors in the supermarket industry...
...addition to the speed limit idea, the party voted to put the brakes on several economic reforms introduced by Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. The party called for the introduction of a minimum wage, for example, and the expansion of the period of eligibility for unemployment benefits for workers over the age of 50 - from 12 to 24 months. The party also urged a rethink of the government plan to partially privatize the national train company, Deutsche-Bahn, next year in a policy that has thrown the multibillion-euro deal into question. Merkel even came in for criticism from...