Walmart: A Giant in the Retail Industry for Over 50 Years - Essay Sample

Introduction

Walmart is one of the largest multinational retail company, globally (Courtemanche & Carden 165). It has grocery stores, discounts, departmental stores, and hypermarkets. It is also the largest company in the world in terms of income and provides most of its commodities at lower prices than its competitors. For over fifty years now, it has been part of people's lives by being a dominant business in the retail industry. There are, nonetheless, various claims among economists and researchers that Walmart has been engaging in different wrongdoings where the majority of them are directed towards women and are condemned (Courtemanche & Carden 165). It employs 1.4 million individuals, where approximately 815,000 are women, which is 57% of both the United States and Canadian population (Blodget 1). In the last 20 years, it has had a history of unfair treatment of its women workers. This trend can be attributed to its careless technique of emerging as the powerhouse it has transformed into today. Therefore, whereas Walmart employs a significant number of workers in the United States, most female employees are always underpaid, pregnant women neglected, and others discriminated based on their gender.

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While being employed at Walmart may not be fruitful for everybody, it might moreover be hard for women because they are often underpaid. From as early as 2001, there have been various filed suitcases globally, such as Walmart vs. Dukes aimed at changing women's treatment (McCormick 62). In the US, the Supreme Court, nevertheless, rejected it, making it difficult for women, particularly at Walmart, to break free from underpayment and underrepresentation. Also, in a recent scenario in 2013, although women were approximately 57% of Walmart's labor force in the United States, they received as little as $1.16 per hour (Gustafson 1). This figure additionally totals almost $1100 less compared to their men counterparts performing the same tasks (Marques 436). Thus, despite women making up the highest percentage of Walmart employees, the majority of them receive low wages.

Besides, people think that being employed at Walmart is already difficult for female employees, but they should forget about working there if they are women and pregnant. Numerous litigations are in court against Walmart in an attempt to fight for pregnant women who have encountered different mistreatments, such as being overworked. If women fail to follow their directives, they are placed in dangerous situations with higher chances of being fired even while they are pregnant (Aguilar 1). In the previously filed lawsuits against Walmart, the majority of them ended with the court ruling against pregnant women. For instance, in a recently concluded case of Young vs. United Parcel Service, the court ruled in favor of Walmart. The court concluded that plaintiffs lacked sufficient evidence where pregnant women were neglected (Ziegler 219). Therefore, for now, most people are hoping that the courts rule in favor of women to ensure that pregnant women are not neglected and have better working conditions.

Women employees working in Walmart also face gender discrimination. Once again, in 2019, Walmart faced an additional raft of gender discrimination cases (Blake 1). They were brought in the wake of the 2011 United States Supreme Court decision in Dukes vs. Walmart Stores case (McCormick 62). Approximately one hundred employees filed gender discrimination charges against Walmart on February 1, 2019 (Blake 1). Some of the keys complaints included alleging denial of equal salary to their male counterparts as well as a renunciation for promotions to various salaried management occupations. The Supreme Court, however, failed to make a ruling on the lawsuit, arguing that it was too large to form a class action case. The decision has, thus, influenced the case's plaintiffs to file individual in the United States as well as surrounding nations such as Canada. Lindsey Wagner, one of the long working employees in Walmart, in an interview with the guardian claimed that there existed a culture at Walmart, which she also stated that it continues to exist (Blake 1). She asserted that most female employees working in Walmart had been hired to some positions that carry no opportunity for promotion and growth. She supported that the newly recruited and hired women workers were always positioned in associates or cashier roles. Their men counterparts, on the other hand, were allocated in departments such as sporting or electronic products, which carried fast-track promotion opportunities (Blake 1). Therefore, her claims supported by various lawsuits brought against Walmart are a clear indication that women are discriminated based on gender.

Walmart has found its self in different lawsuits due to various wrongdoings. Some of the most crucial wrongdoings are visible in terms of neglecting pregnant workers, underpaying women, and discriminating against them based on gender. Although various female employees have filed both workers and individual lawsuits against Walmart, the Supreme Court in most cases has ruled in its favor. Therefore, if Walmart intends to continue being the largest multinational corporation in the current competitive world, it should avoid such wrongdoings and concentrate on providing consumers and its female employees with better products, services, pay, and promotions based on merit rather than gender.

Works Cited

Aguilar, Daniel. Walmart Sued Over Pregnancy Treatment. 2017, https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/12/17/walmart-sued-over-pregnancy-treatment. Accessed 12 Jan 2020.

Blake, Mike. Walmart Facing Gender Discrimination Lawsuits From Female Employees. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/18/walmart-gender-discrimination-supreme-court. Accessed 15 Jan 2020.

Blodget, Henry. Walmart Employs 1% Of America. Should It Be Forced To Pay Its Employees More? 2010, https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-employees-pay?IR=T. Accessed 14 Jan 2020.

Courtemanche, Charles, and Art Carden. "Supersizing supercenters? The impact of Walmart Supercenters on body mass index and obesity." Journal of Urban Economics 69.2 (2011): 165-181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2010.09.005

Gustafson, Krystina. The Real Test of Wal-Mart's $2.7 Billion Wage Investment Is About To Begin. 2016, https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/11/the-real-test-of-wal-marts-27-billion-wage-investment-is-about-to-begin.html. Accessed 12 Jan 2020.

Marques, Joan F. "Colorful window dressing: A critical review on workplace diversity in three major American corporations." Human Resource Development Quarterly 21.4, 010, pp-435-446, https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/colorful-window-dressing-a-critical-review-on-workplace-diversity-in-UF0Lzg1jj0. Accessed 12 Jan 2020.

McCormick, Marcia L. "Implausible Injuries: Wal-Mart v. Dukes and the Future of Class Actions and Employment Discrimination Cases." DePaul L. Rev. 62, 2012, pp-711, https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/deplr62&div=33&id=&page=. Accessed 12 Jan 2020.

Ziegler, Mary. "Choice at Work: Young v. United Peace Parcel Service, Pregnancy Discrimination, and Reproductive Liberty." Denv. L. Rev. 93, 2015, pp-219, https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/denlr93&div=8&id=&page=. Accessed 12 Jan 2020.