Wal-Mart's low wages and unaffordable health care force Dana and her three children to depend heavily on Minnesota Care and Social Security to survive. "I don't know where I would be without those two programs", she says. Including income from her second job at a Holiday gas station, Dana earns a take-home pay of less than $20,000 each year. Although Dana's salary of $11.29 per hour is well above Wal-Mart's alleged average hourly pay of $10.11, she still cannot afford Wal-Mart's health insurance plan with a monthly premium of $300 and deductibles reaching over $1000. In fact, when Dana went to apply for Minnesota Care, one of the eligibility workers called the Wal-Mart health plan "ineffective".
Wal-Mart insurance does not provide many necessities including vaccinations, regular check ups, and allergy shots. That would make Wal-Mart insurance very problematic for a mother with boys who must be vaccinated in order to attend public school. Therefore, Dana is very thankful for Minnesota Care coverage.
Dana is also concerned about Wal-Mart's anti-worker environment, which is perhaps best exemplified by Dana's experience after getting injured on the job. While carrying an oversized box, Dana tripped over another box by another worker. The store managers had "no sympathy" for the injury. After an incident report was filed and Dana's doctor told her to "only work half shifts, (is) painful and fatigued", Wal-Mart still made her work full shifts. She was even moved to Furniture, one of the most strenuous and physically demanding departments in the store. Dana believes she should have received more support from management during this ordeal. "The way things were handled definitely did not fit into the supposed 'Wal-Mart model' of supporting fellow employees," she explains.
Dana believes Wal-Mart increases its profits with no consideration for the human cost of these actions. Although the store achieved forty million dollars in sales last year, no store bonuses were given because the Fridley store did not meet its "desired projections." Workers are written up if they work over forty hours. Dana is frustrated about Wal-Mart's outsourcing of manufacturing -- exporting American jobs to countries that pay their workers even less than in the U.S. Dana is also outraged that Wal-Mart receives subsidies from the city, state and federal government. "The workers should be getting that money", she says. She knows they need it * one of her co-workers actually lives in a car because she cannot afford rent on her Wal-Mart salary.
More Wal-Mart Worker Stories:
A. G. White
Bettie Madsen
Cindy Starns
Cynthia Murray
Dana Razaie
Diane Muthig
Five Workers From New York
Greg Pierce
Josh Smith
Kristen Bonardi Rapp
Lance Hindman
Mona Curtis
Ollie & Patricia Wells
Rosetta Brown
