Wal-Mart Agrees To Pay $33 Million In Back Wages

From Bloomberg News:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest U.S. private employer, will pay $33 million in back wages plus interest under an agreement with the U.S. Labor Department. The accord covers 86,680 hourly and salaried employees who worked at the company during the past five years, the Labor Department said in a statement today. The back pay relates to how Wal-Mart calculated overtime pay at its Bentonville, Arkansas- based headquarters.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Labor Department said the settlement would average about $386 in back pay and interest for each of the 87,000 Wal-Mart employees. “These are employees not making a lot of money, and so the fact that they did not get all of the overtime due is a significant problem,” said Steven Mandel, a lawyer for the department’s Fair Labor Standards Division. “$386 is real money.”

From Women’s Wear Daily:

Wal-Mart, which has sought to improve its public image amid accusations that it provides inadequate health and other benefits, discovered the underpayment during an internal audit and alerted the U.S. Labor Department.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

Within three months, 86,680 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees will get $33 million in back wages, plus interest, for unpaid overtime work performed between Feb. 1, 2002, and Jan. 19.

From the New York Times:

The average compensation for the nearly 87,000 employees will be around $375. Wal-Mart said 75 employees would receive more than $10,000 in back wages; Mr. Mandel said the highest amount anyone would receive was $39,775. The employees are also to receive interest.

From the Arkansas Times:

It’s all about lowering costs. Remember this the next time the people who own Wal-Mart—the same people who are trying to buy Arkansas’s schools, universities and government in support of paying teachers according to results on standardized test scores—say their aim is raising teacher pay. Why would you expect them to want to be more generous with their tax money than they are with the company’s money?

From MarketWatch:

The two highest-profile labor-related groups scrutinizing Wal-Mart’s actions criticized the retailer as being disingenuous. David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar called the news the latest in a “disturbing pattern of Wal-Mart’s disregard for the law. “Wal-Mart only came forward because (it was) facing greater legal exposure on this matter on several other related lawsuits,” Nassar said in a statement.

Posted by Laura Jack on Friday, January 26, 2007

Click Here for a Printer-Friendly Version