Saturday, May 24, 2014

Costco Treats Employees Like Human Beings

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

According to the firm Glassdoor which compiles information on employee job satisfaction, the average pay for a cashier at Costco is $15.20 an hour, while the average pay for a cashier at Walmart's Sam's Club is $9.37 an hour.  That same position at Target pays an average of $8.18 an hour.  Recent sales have been strong at Costco, while at Sam's Club - not so much.  According to Bloomberg Businessweek, about 88 percent of Costco employees even have company-sponsored health insurance.

Costco CEO and President Craig Jelinek is on record with his support for a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour,  and he said that his company pays a starting wage of $11.50 in all states where they do business.  While some CEO's strive to keep employee benefits and pay at the absolute minimum, Jelinek takes the opposite approach.  He recently elaborated on his style of sharing the wealth with employees:

"I think people need to make a living wage with health benefits.  It also puts more money back into the economy and creates a healthier country.  It's really that simple."

Yes, it is.   While one company may put out food donation boxes so their employees can have Christmas dinner, Jelinek's people have the ability to meet their own basic needs.  While other companies may encourage their employees to apply for food and income assistance from the government,  Costco employees are taking care of themselves, strengthening the economy through their purchases, and paying taxes.

Glassdoor  compiled a list of the twenty-five best companies for compensation and benefits.  Their rankings also factored in the results of an employee job satisfaction survey.  The companies were, in order from first to twenty-fifth:

Google, Costco, Facebook, Adobe, Epic, Intuit, USAA, Chevron, Salesforce, Monsanto, Genentech, Kaiser Permanente, Qualcomm, Riverbed, Verizon, VM Ware, T Mobile, Microsoft, Amgen, Pfizer, Edison, Orbitz, P&G, Union Pacific, and Ebay.

America should not be about making billionaires - it should be about treating each other with decency and respect, and ensuring that everyone gets at least a bite out of the pie.    Treating people like human beings is a sound business model, one that makes the economy stronger and gives people the ability to take care of themselves.  It is smart, it is just, and it is moral.

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