In the beginning when Walmart was small and maturing business, they were an ideal company in the eyes of employees. But as the company grew into a worldwide empire, so did the number of ethical issues they faced. With promises of low prices to keep to its customers, they have made decisions which have impacted employees. People say Walmart has poor management, have poor wages for both local and outsourced workers. Many people would call these things uneithical, but Walmart claims otherwise. They claim they are helping people by creating jobs, which meet minimum wage standards, and they care about the ethics within their company. There is an abundance of arguments that call out Walmart as being unethical, but what people easily ignore are these lesser known ones that argue for Walmart’s ethical side.
The most predominate unethical issue Walmart has received criticism over for countless years is their poor treatment of employees. The retailer is known for paying its store associates minimum wage. These low wages make it tough for an employee to support a family let alone themselves. Because of the low wages that Walmart pays its employees, many of them have to use government assistance such as food stamps in order to survive. This is not only bad for the employees but it is also costing taxpayers. Walmart does not offer benefits to their part-time workers who work less than twenty-eight hours a week. This can be seen as unethical because the employees are already being paid such a low wage that they cannot afford health insurance on their own. Overall Walmart is running unethical practices regarding the way they treat their employees.
Walmart has also been claimed to be unethical due to its poor management. In its U.S. locations it has been found that managers are secretly moving hours around. When an employee has worked enough hours to gain overtime, managers go into the computer and move those overtime hours into the next pay period. This way they do not have to spend any extra money on their employees and they can reduce their costs, unfortunately they are also taking money rightfully earned by their employees. They have also shown discrimination within the company. People claim that women and minorities have an even more difficult time advancing than anyone else; they are treated unequally.
Another big issue Walmart faces is how they have unethically wronged the employees that create Walmart products. These employees (often Chinese workers) are unfairly compensated for the items they create. For instance if Walmart is making a shirt worth $14, a worker in one of these factories could be given less than $.25 for the labor to make the shirt. It is understood that Wal-Mart has other costs that go into the shirt, such as materials, shipping, etc. that cut into that profit, but they are still making a very healthy profit of probably more than $10 when all is said and done. What makes this unethical is that Walmart can afford to pay more to these workers who are struggling to make ends meet. The cost of living in China is very cheap, so an extra $.25 paid to workers per shirt could substantially help a worker’s family.
As a corporation, Walmart has explicit obligations to all its stakeholders, including to its 2.2 million worldwide associates. These stakeholders have a right not to be treated as a means to an end, but to participate in the determination of their firm’s future. Walmart’s outsourced workers in China however, are being treated just as such, a means to an end which creates another unethical issue. Walmart has forsaken all social responsibility in order to increase their profits, forcing their employees to work extended hours, take minimal wages, and pay rent for dungeon like dormitories (regardless if they choose to live there or not). Walmart has compromised beyond measure the well-being of the employees who represent them in their own self- interests to cut down manufacturing costs and fill their pockets. If in contemplation of the law a corporation exists as a “legal person”, why should we not then hold Walmart accountable to the same moral and ethical standards to which we hold any other individual? In that sense, to outsource to China is a direct violation of the Principle of Distributive Justice, to never take action which harms the least among us. To offer these workers employment in such deplorable conditions is no more than exploiting their current situation which lacks any better alternative.
The most obvious rebuttal Walmart can make about its company ethics is its wages. Walmart is ethical because they are paying what is legally required of them. They comply with the federal minimum wage standards and are not legally required to pay more. A Walmart attendant is a low-level job that involves little skill so a job that can be easily filled by most any person doesn’t need a specialty worker who should be paid more; in other words, you get what you sign up for. They also do pay more to their employees in higher positions. There is no standard to which this amount should meet, so if that amount is fair or not is just a matter of opinion.
Another huge argument Walmart can make is the amount of jobs Walmart has created all over the world, whether for people here in the U.S. working in the superstores, or those overseas producing the product is very ethical. Often Walmart has been blamed for low wages, bad working conditions, etc. but the fact of the matter is they have produced hundreds of thousands of jobs around the world. Some of the jobs created are much better for some employees than any other job would be, for instance in China an employee not working in the factory could be found working hard manual labor out on a farm for much less pay. In the U.S. we have seen some smaller businesses forced out of the market because of Wal-Mart, but generally a superstore will create more total jobs for the community than the smaller businesses combined. It is unfortunate that the smaller businesses have been forced to close, but when looking at the bigger picture more people benefit than lose in this situation.
Recently Walmart has begun pushing out their ‘Statement of Ethics’ and have dedicated a whole website to their ethical practices. This program was made to increase global awareness that Walmart is making an effort to improve their business ethics. The Ethics program is also made to help educate their employees on the values and ethics that they want the company to follow. This education program involves both e-learning and instructor-led training for all employees of Walmart. Offering the option of e-learning helps provide an easy and accessible way to teach employees about Walmart’s ethical practices. In the past Walmart received a great deal of publicity regarding their poor ethical practices although this ethical education program is a step in the right direction for the company to improve their practices.
Despite public assumption, working at Walmart doesn’t necessarily have to be a dead end minimum wage job. Walmart offers a variety of advancement opportunities. Seventy- five percent of current Walmart managers first started as hourly associates, and now earn between $50,000 and $170,000 a year. Offering these advancement opportunities allows Walmart associates to take their futures into their own hands. As an employer, Walmart has fulfilled its obligation to its employee’s best interests by offering them a way to better their situation. Walmart should not be held ethically responsible should an employee choose not to take the initiative to pursue these opportunities. By empowering their employees to take control of their own lives, Walmart is in turn being socially responsible by contributing to the welfare of the community as a whole.