NEW INTERNAL DOCUMENTS HIGHLIGHT COMPANY’S CONCERN OVER IMPOSING SALARY CAPS AND DISCUSS EXPLICIT SCENARIOS WHERE WAL-MART WORKERS WILL RECEIVE PAY CUTS UNDER NEW SALARY CAPS

Washington DC – Less than a week after WakeUpWalMart.com exposed Wal-Mart’s plan to eliminate health care benefits for its new hires, today, WakeUpWalMart.com revealed new, internal Wal-Mart documents that provide a disturbing insight into the company’s ongoing war on its full-time workers’ wages and benefits. As reported by the New York Times, the internal documents highlight the extent to which Wal-Mart’s wage and salary changes, first announced in August 2006, raised substantial concern among Wal-Mart’s management. Most striking, according to Wal-Mart’s own talking points, the company promised its employees in 2004 that Wal-Mart would not impose salary caps, but then broke its promise in August 2006 by introducing wage and pay caps for all 1.39 million Wal-Mart employees.

The three Wal-Mart documents, entitled “Facility Manager Toolkit, dated August 2006, include a series of detailed instructions and talking points for Wal-Mart’s management on how to roll-out the salary caps at Wal-Mart stores. The documents are meant to anticipate and address the specific questions that would arise by imposing the company’s first-ever salary caps, eliminating merit pay bonuses, potentially cutting salaries for workers who change positions or transfer to new facilities, and refusing to grant already approved salary raises for workers who are near or exceed the wage maximum.

“Wal-Mart’s war on its own workers has no bounds. Wal-Mart breaks its own promise and then adds insult to injury by imposing salary caps, eliminating merit bonuses, refusing raises, and even cutting wages for some. It is a slap in the face to all hard-working Wal-Mart employees and goes against everything Sam Walton stood for,” said Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

According to the new documents, Wal-Mart’s salary cap means that employees who exceed the cap will never receive a raise again while working for the company in their current position or Position Pay Grade (PPG). As the documents details, “Since your current pay rate is at or over the range, you will no longer be eligible for pay increases as long as you remain in the same PPG, unless the PPG Pay range increases in the future.” In another section of the document, Wal-Mart makes it very clear to its Managers that “Associates will not be eligible for any pay increase that raises their pay above the Pay Range maximum.”

One of the most shocking facts is the very last talking point where Wal-Mart admits that it had promised its workers that it would not impose Salary Caps, but in the interests of “change,” Wal-Mart is now breaking this promise. As the document reads on page 24:

[Question] You told us in 2004 that we wouldn’t have pay range maximums. Sam was a man of honor. Apparently current management doesn’t care about integrity and honor.

[Answer] Wal-Mart is built on change and the ability to evolve and continually meet the needs of customers. Therefore, things that may have been the best approach in the past may not be appropriate to meet our future business direction. These latest pay program changes, including pay ranges, fall into this latter category.

As the document confirms, Wal-Mart is well aware of the negative impact that salary caps would have on its workers. On page 6 of the Facility Manager Toolkit, Wal-Mart instructs store managers to, “Be prepared for situations that will require you to have difficult conversations with Associates. The changes may be difficult for some associates. It is important for you to show respect for this natural reaction to change.”

Wal-Mart’s internal documents also appear to contradict the company’s August public statements, as well as repeated statements in these documents, that no associates’ pay will be reduced. In fact, Wal-Mart’s documents make it very clear that Wal-Mart’s employees can receive a pay cut if they transfer to another store or even if they change position, voluntarily or involuntarily. As the document details on page 12:

“If you decide at anytime in the future to change positions or transfer to a different facility, your pay wage rate will be adjusted following the pay guidelines which could result in your pay being adjusted up or down.”

Wal-Mart further explains. On page 16, the scenario under which an associate’s Position Pay Grade (PPG) would be decreased:

[Question] What happens if I move to a job in a lower PPG?

[Answer] “In most cases, your pay will be reduced by the difference in the starting pay rates of the old and new PPG. (For example, if the starting pay rate for your current PPG is $7.40 and the starting pay rate for your new PPG is $7.20, your pay will be reduced by 20 cents). You will not, however, be paid more than the maximum amount for your new PPG.

The full document is available for review at WakeUpWalMart.com