The total value of Lee Scott’s stock options just keeps rising and is currently up $30.6 million to $202 million since 2007. This figure includes both direct and indirect shares held by Scott; see Wal-Mart SEC Proxy Statement from April 22, 2008 for more details. The value of Scott’s holdings, calculated by combining the number of shares he owns times the current share price, Scott now exercises control over an amount that would take the average Wal-Mart worker 10,522 years to earn at an “average” wage of $10.86/hr. And this is not counting Scott’s total non-share compensation, which amounted to $31.6 million in 2007. Scott’s pay is one of the few Fortune 500 CEOs’ equity-based compensation that rose in the past year; 175 of the top 200 suffered a median fall of 50% percent in shares held in their own company. Wal-Mart’s stock as a company may have risen 10% in the past year, but does Scott really deserve the additional $30 million in value he’s just gotten when Wal-Mart wages fail to keep pace with inflation and “full-time” employees earn poverty-level wages?

You lost your shirt? CEOs did worse! [CNN Money]

You think you lost a bundle in the market? The CEOs who lead the companies in the upper decks of the Fortune 500 have fared even worse: Their stock holdings in their own companies declined in value by $54 billion last year.

A just-released study by executive compensation consultancy Steven Hall & Partners sums up the damage. For CEOs who head 175 of the top 200 corporations in the Fortune 500, the median value of the equity held in their own businesses dropped 50% last year. This decline is far worse than the 37% median drop for the stocks of those companies.

What accounts for the relatively dreadful performance of the CEOs’ own holdings? Options. They tend to be tremendous wealth accumulators in good times. But when a stock price falls below an option’s exercise price, the intrinsic value of the option goes to zero. And in this sinking stock market, that has happened a lot. Those underwater options create a more dramatic drop-off in CEO equity values than you’d expect from just looking at a company’s stock price.

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The first piece of legislation that President Obama signs could be a major step forward for pro-labor groups. Senate Bill 181, a wage discrimination bill that will reverse a 2007 Supreme Court decision narrowing the time period during which a worker can file a wage discrimination claim, cleared the Senate yesterday and is not expected to have much difficulty passing in the House. That would be because the House passed a nearly identical bill two weeks ago that, for reasons we won’t worry about for the moment, was not considered by the Senate.

The legislation, titled the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, focuses on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., [550 U.S. 618 (2007)], a Supreme Court decision holding that regardless of when a worker discovers a pay disparity, any legal action needs to be filed within 180 days of the initial decision to pay the worker less. That means if you didn’t discover that you were being screwed within the first 6 months of your employment, you were pretty much up the creek. For Lilly Ledbetter, an employee at Goodyear Tire and Rubber for over 19 years, she didn’t realize she was getting a lower salary and lower pay raises then her male counterparts until after she left the company - and only then because an anonymous note was left in her mailbox. A statute of limitations is not uncommon in the civil law system, but often they begin to toll once the perceived wrong is discovered. Forcing an employee to sue within 180 days of a decision they might not discover for years - if ever - is fairly, well, wrong.

It has been a priority for women’s groups seeking to narrow the wage gap between men and women. “We feel free at last,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., the chief sponsor of the legislation. She said the strong vote, which included all 16 female senators — including four Republicans — was “a sign of what Democratic leadership means.”

The AP story points out another point regarding the legislation...that is, the effect it might have on other labor legislation, including the Employee Free Choice Act:

The bill paves the way for considering more controversial labor measures, including one that would take away a company’s right to demand a secret ballot when workers are seeking to organize. (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid said that could come up this summer.

Senate passes wage discrimination bill [Associated Press]

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When we hear about Wal-Mart being in the ‘top-five’ of something, we usually assume it’s in CEO salary, quarterly earnings, highest number of lawsuits pending against them or worst places ever to buy bassinets.  Today it’s among the worst corporations on worker’s right to organize. The International Labor Rights Forum [ILRF] released a report today called: “Working for Scrooge: 5 Worst Companies for the Right to Associate,” and guess who made the list?  We weren’t surprised either.  Wal-Mart has a very real history of anti-union propaganda and bigotry. 

The report cites several of the more highly-publicized anti union stories such as Jonquiere, Quebec where a tire and lube shop was shut down after workers successfully unionized it and Jacksonville, Texas, where the meat department of a retail outlet successfully unionized and Wal-Mart responded by shutting down the meat department in every Wal-Mart, nation-wide.  Will the newly-unionized Saskatchewan outlet meet the same fate?  We sure hope not…

Other finalists included: Dole, Del-Monte, Russell Athletic, and Nestle.  The union-busting must be stopped.  Write your local representative and tell them to support the Employee Free Choice Act today! 

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

Another Wal-Mart employee recently filed a racial discrimination and retaliation complaint against Wal-Mart in the Northern District of Georgia…

Raquel Sagastume lives in Riverdale, Georgia. Originally, Ms. Sagastume hails from Honduras. She was hired at Wal-Mart as a Sales Associate in March of 2001.  After her successful job performance, Ms. Sagastume was promoted to Assistant Store Manager and made approximately $46,000.00 a year.

In 2006, Ms. Sagastume was transferred to a store located in Lovejoy, Georgia. Upon arriving at the new location and without her approval, Ms. Sagastume’s salary was immediately reduced to $38,000.00 a year. No indication was ever given to Ms. Sagastume that her performance on the job was anything less than stellar. 

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Add another statuette to the Wal-Mart trophy case: the retailer has staked claim to no fewer than three spots on the list of top ten highest salaries for retail execs. Wal-Mart is the ONLY company to make more than one appearance on the list, with CEO Lee Scott, John Menzer and Mike Duke all qualifying for multimillion dollar salaries.

Lee Scott, as you’ll note, makes more than twice what the second-highest earning executive makes, and more than 1,645 times what an average Wal-Mart worker earns in a year.

Lee Scott’s compensation rose at a time when the Walton family members are all making millions of dollars off their Wal-Mart stock options. But in that same time, the wages of Wal-Mart’s lowest paid employees have remained stagnant, even decreasing if you take inflation and the rising cost of living in to account.

Here’s the full list from Women’s Wear Daily. We’ve included the detailed profiles for Wal-Mart’s executives who appear on the list.

1. H. Lee Scott Jr., 59, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Value of 2007 Compensation Package $31.6 million
Base salary: $1.4 million; Bonus: $0; Stock and option awards: $20.9 million; Other: $9.3 million
This Kansas-bred son of a gas station owner enjoyed a 6.4 percent jump in compensation from one year ago as Wal-mart got back on track by emphasizing value and low prices. Scott earned over $15 million more this year than his fellow top Wal-Mart executives, thanks to hefty stock and option awards - in fact, his value is $15 million more than any other executive on the list. Scott joined the company in September 1979 and under his leadership Wal-Mart has become the biggest retailer in the world. This past fiscal year, Wal-Mart spent $101,208 on Scott’s use of the company aircraft, not including pilot and crew salaries.

2. Paul Marciano, 56, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Guess Inc.
Value of 2007 Compensation Package $15.3 million

3. John B. Menzer, 56, Former Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Value of 2007 Compensation Package $14.9 million
Base salary: $1 million; Bonus: $0; Stock and option awards: $9.2 million; Other: $4.6 million
Menzer’s compensation is up 16.9 percent from 2006 due to increases in stock awards and other incentives, which helped catapult him into the top 10. Menzer, who retired in March, began his Wal-Mart career in 1995 as the company’s chief financial officer and was promoted to president and ceo of Wal-Mart International in 1999, where he had full responsibility for the company’s operations in 15 countries. Under his leadership, international sales grew to $60 billion from $20 billion. He also currently sits on the board of the Emerson Electric Co.

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