Walmart Employment Practices: Gender Discrimintation Questions

Walmart's legal team is busier than it would like to be. They just won a nationwide sexual discrimination lawsuit, settled by the Supreme Court in their favor. But, their troubles may be far from over, as similar, though smaller, suits on the way – possibly a lot of them. What's really happening, Walmart?

Walmart won this recent Supreme Court case because they have no nationwide pay or promotion policy written down that would suggest mangers can practice pay and promotion discrimination by gender. Basically, their lawyers are top notch. The problem can't be found on paper.

What seems to be the trouble is individual managers at Walmart stores who are making decisions that are making Walmart look bad. A story following up on the case suggested that Walmart is allowing local managers to make “subjective decisions” about pay and promotions. So, perhaps Walmart has a fair policy written down, but its managers are making poor choices. The facts will come out in future legal battles.

In contrast, Walmart received some awards recently that suggest that they have an outstanding culture for supporting women and their success on the job. According to their corporate website, the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) has named Walmart one of the top 50 companies for executive women for the last two years, and it was named one of the 20 best companies for multicultural women by WorkingMom.com.

What do we know? Here at PayScale we can tell you some basic facts on Walmart’s culture and pay practices, as reported by its employees:

• Walmart’s gender balance tips towards female employees: 57 percent female and 43 percent male.
• Women’s hourly pay range bumps up a bit higher than men’s, on average. Women: $8.67 – $12.10 per hour. Men: $8.63 – $11.70 per hour
• Walmart does not typically offer vision or dental insurance.
• Opticians, pharmacists and production managers are some of the best-paid employees.
• Permanent employees are some of the best paid at Walmart, with part-time employees earning nearly two dollars less per hour on average.
• Employees with 5-9 years of experience don’t get quite two weeks of vacation per year.
• Outside of Bentonville, Ark., the best paid Walmart employees are in Dallas, Texas.

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