The Real Reasons for Walmart’s Minimum Wage Increases

Walmart recently announced that they would be increasing the minimum wages they pay their employees to at least $10.00 an hour. As the largest employer in the country, employing one in a hundred Americans, Walmart has been notoriously cheap with their employees. Many class action lawsuits have been filed against the corporation by wage theft attorneys throughout the US for illegal business practices that defraud employees. This new wage increase seems unlikely to be out of the kindness of the corporation’s executives’ hearts.

The wage theft lawsuits that Walmart has faced have been for illegal business practices like nonpayment of working wages and unpaid overtime. These systematic abuses by Walmart management are unlikely to change. Experienced NYC employee rights attorneys suspect that these increases may only make problems like this worse. They are increasing the wages to keep up with their competitors’ increases in wages—this is only going to put increased pressure on management to tighten their margins even further. The increased pressure is likely to lead to more managers pushing their employees towards illegal wage practices.

Increasing minimum wages is just a means of trying to avoid further litigation for illegal business practices. Paying somewhat more competitive wages is also a means of trying to manipulate employees from exercising their legal rights. By paying more than minimum wages, they are hoping that their employees do not seek the help of NYC employee rights attorneys to fight for their rights after wage theft occurs.  Employees should be empowered with the knowledge that it is yet another legal violation to retaliate against employees that take a stand against workplace wage violations.

It is unlikely that Walmart has committed to changing their employee relations practices with this recent step towards giving their employees a more livable wage. Their motives for increasing their wages are questionable and their business model lends itself towards employees being victimized by wage theft.

At Hepworth, Gershbaum & Roth, PLLC, our New York wage theft attorneys help victims recover the compensation they deserve. You can schedule a free initial consultation by calling us at 212-545-1199 or you can contact us online.