Insider Reveals Who Really Paid the Bill When Wal-Mart Gave Away Unlimited EBT AccessDaisy Luther But who really paid for the recklessly allowed spending frenzy? Was it the managers who made the decision to allow the shoppers to clear the shelves? Was it the corporation itself cutting a check? According to one employee (who has spoken on condition of anonymity) it is the hourly employees who have paid these bills. Within days of the spree, Wal-Mart employees, who make minimum wage or just over, were sent home early. Schedules were revised, hours were cut, and shifts were cancelled. I just read your write up on the Louisiana EBT fiasco. I happen to live in northwest Louisiana, where the no-limit food stamp shopping sprees occurred at several local Wal-mart supercenters. I also work for Walmart in the same market where the shelf clearing, free-for-all occurred. While you mentioned that yes, the tax payers are not having to foot the bill for this act of theft, let me tell you who paid to cover Walmarts gigantic loss: Walmart employees!!!!!!! How you ask? By major cuts in payroll hours across this market area. About 3 days after the story broke in the news, hours began being cut by a verbal request from management to associates to go home early. Soon after that signs went up by the time clock telling associates to recheck their schedules, as changes had been made. A few days later, the next sign that went up. It said, if you are not scheduled, SEE MANAGEMENT BEFORE OVERIDING and clocking in. In other words, well decide who we want to be here today and who we want to go home on a daily basis. The next cut came in the next posted schedule. Many associates including myself had n0 hours, but many came to work anyway. The next week, people were cut to 32 to 35 (full time employees). Not so sure about part time and temps. Signs are still posted by time clock as of 3pm today saying check with management before clocking in if not scheduled. Never in my [redacted to protect privacy] years of service have I seen that sign until this EBT thing. No salaried managers, whether directly involved in the bad decision or not, were affected with pay cuts. Just hourly associates. Im sure if you were to contact those in charge of this decision to outright steal from the employees, you would receive a completely different explanation for the payroll cut. It would go something like, low sales blah blah blahover budget on suppliesslow shopping season, etc etc etc. But what Im telling you is the truth. Ask the employees of this market. Ask any employee who has been with this company 5 or more years, and they will all tell you the exact same thing. Weve overheard it from our managers, and yes, its spiraled through the rumor mill, but its the simple truth. I choose to remain anonymous in order to protect my ability to put food on my table and keep the lights on for me and my family, as jobs in my community are few and far between. If you check the corporations Working at Wal-Mart page, youll see a different picture of corporate culture that has been painted by a rather dishonest copywriter. Were known around the world for helping our customers and Members save money so they can live better. We do that on a foundation of integrity by being honest, fair and objective. This is the basis of our unique corporate culture and how we bring our mission to life. And it begins with the values and morals that were deeply rooted in our company by Sam Walton. Walton was known for treating employees well, offering benefits, and extending the opportunity to earn higher wages based on merit and hard work. Many years ago Wal-Marts founder, Sam Walton, figured out the value of creating a true employee partnership. He knew that under the right circumstances every employee has the capacity to be a business leader. For this reason he pushed decision-making downward by empowering all of his employees to act like business owners. Sam Walton referred to his employees as associates so they would act like entrepreneurs, and take ownership of the business. To really capture that feeling that owners feel, Wal-Mart offers profit-sharing to all of Its employee associate partners. At Wal-Mart profit-sharing is not a something for nothing proposition. Only when predetermined sales, expense, and profit goals are met do the associates share in the companys profits. (source) After Walton died in 1992, however, his children took over the company and began focusing on profit over people. The growth of the company skyrocketed, from $43.8 billion in revenue to $447 billion in revenue in 2011. That growth came on the backs of the employees, however. Wal-Marts new leaders took to heart one element of the founders business philosophythe importance of reducing costsbut they didnt show his intuition about the importance of making employees feel as though they had a stake in the company. They were already at a disadvantage as it was. Wal-Marts rate of growth was impressive but slower than in its early yearsthe inevitable result of becoming so bigand this weakened the appeal of such incentives as stock ownership. But character also played a role. The companys focus on saving money was leading it to make unrealistic demands of local managers, particularly with regard to payroll, and this pressure would eventually lead to serious trouble. The simplest way to save money is to avoid paying people for all the hours that theyve workeda practice called off-the-clock work. Of course, Wal-Mart cant explicitly force employees to work off-the-clock. But it can set payroll targets that are nearly impossible to achieve without doing just that. As one manager explained toThe New York Times in 2002, You got to hit the payroll budget they set for you, but if youre over, they discipline you. Plausible deniability, then, becomes essential. Workers get assigned more work than they can possibly complete on their shiftswhile being warned that overtime is out of the question. No intelligent employee would fail to get the message: Finish the job by whatever means necessary. We worked off the clock pretty much every shift, one employee told the Times. The manager said if our jobs were not finished, we had to clock out and finish our jobs so no overtime would show up. (source) Wal-Marts slogan is Save money, live better. Apparently that whole live better part doesnt apply to their employees. The website Making Change at Wal-Mart describes the plight of employees of the corporation. If you really want to know who is paying for the EBT shopping spree, these are the people whose hours have been cut to subsidize the bad decision of Wal-Mart managers. Some people reading this are probably saying, Why dont they just quit? or Its their choice to work there. In the United States more than 102 million people do not have a job. In many parts of the country, particularly rural regions, Wal-Mart is one of the biggest employers in the area. If there are no jobs around, would you give up a job, even a bad one? For many employees, this is the only option other than welfare. Its a disgusting example of corporate greed to punish those who are struggling to get by for the mistakes of thieves who took advantage of a computer malfunction and the highly-paid salaried employees who made the decision to ignore the established $50 limit and allow them to do so. Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca 