Wal-Mart's Women
When six females filed a class action discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart in 2004, they were not just looking out for their own interests; they were in fact standing up for 1.6 million other women who worked for - and were allegedly treated unfairly by - Wal-Mart after December 26, 1998. The suit alleges that Wal-Mart in effect has lived under a corporate management culture that discriminates against female employees in matters of pay, promotions, training for management positions, and job assignments. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, and the judge ruled that the women could ask for back pay and compensation for those 1.6 million women.This paper points to the facts of the case, many of which have been presented cogently and graphically by a professor from the University of California at Hayward, Richard Drogin. Using files and data from Wal-Mart, Drogin has painted a picture of institutional discrimination that cries out for a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. For example, Drogin shows that only 33 percent of salaried managers are women, and that male hourly workers earn an average of $18,609 a year, while female hourly employees earn only $17,498. At the higher corporate levels, men make far more than wome
'" If women had been leaving the workforce earlier in their tenure than men did, that might account for the disparity in earnings. Drogin's data shows that both hourly and salaried women make less than salaried and hourly men in the same positions. conforming to a standard of right behavior. And there are more examples of moral issues; to wit, the lack of objectivity in hiring (p. 5% of its salaried management positions filled with women. Meanwhile the major moral complaints the women put forward are compelling. They want fairness, and openness when it comes to HR decisions vis-a-vis gender, nationality, ethnicity, age, longevity and opportunity for advancement. On the other hand, on page 345 the article reports that researcher Richard Drogin concluded that "for a single year 'the total earnings paid to men is about $5,000 more than earnings paid to women, among full-time employees working at least 45 weeks, on average, in 2001. Drogin's information reflects that in "20 comparable large retail chains" 56. Indeed, "discriminate" is the act of "distinguishing illicitly among people not on the basis of individual merit, but on the basis of prejudice or some other invidious or morally reprehensible attitude. The audit of Wal-Mart should be made public, and specific policy changes should result from it. Women were told they had to be "bitches" to make it at Wal-Mart; women were told that only men are worthy of career-based promotions at Wal-Mart, and that women should stay in the kitchen and raise kids. The Wal-Mart attitude with regard to HR has been to let middle management people make up their own rules and invent ways to justify their own decisions about hiring, about raises, about how to conduct themselves within the corporate HR structure.
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