Costco CEO: Raise The Minimum Wage

[Star]

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Most Costco workers have health insurance through Costco, and Costco paid their typical worker around $45,000 in 2011. Walmart-owned Sam's Club OTOH, pays its sales associates an average of $17,486 per year but-----but Costco has found that it's a lot more profitable in the long run to minimize employee turnover, maximize employee productivity, keep their employees healthy and-----and turn their employees into better consumers.

Win-win-win, Costco wins, Costco employees win, money circulates thru the economy/economy wins.





Costco CEO: Raise The Minimum Wage To More Than $10 Per Hour



President Barack Obama wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour. And the CEO of one of America's largest retailers says such a move would be good for workers and businesses alike. In fact, he says raise it even more.

On Tuesday, Costco CEO and President Craig Jelinek came out in support of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which aims to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, then adjust it after that for inflation.
"At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business," Jelinek said in a statement. "We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low."

"An important reason for the success of Costco’s business model is the attraction and retention of great employees," Jelinek added. "Instead of minimizing wages, we know it's a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty. We support efforts to increase the federal minimum wage."


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[bucs90]

Wait a minute. How can this be? A CEO pays his employees a good starting wage. He offers them health insurance. Encourages them to be loyal to Costco, and in turn, Costco treats them well.

HOW IS THIS BUSINESS STILL SURVIVING?

We've had all the Business 101 lectures from right wingers saying a business will go bankrupt doing this.

Oh, and Wal-Mart can get away with paying their employees the miminum and offering no health insurance ONLY BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT counters Wal-Mart with welfare and medicare/medicaid programs. You and I, the taxpayer, subsidize the helping hand to Wal-Marts employees so that Wal-Mart can rake in insane profit.

 

[Political Junky]

Costco pretty much destroys the con argument, doesn't it?

 

[AmyNation]

You know, he can pay his employees more if he wants. He doesn't need the governments permission to give his workers a raise.

 

[Darkwind]

Costco pretty much destroys the cons' argument, doesn't it?

Not in the least. But you go ahead and think that.

As a comparison of successful businesses, a comparison of Wal*mart and Costco isn't even close.

Costco looses, hands down.

If you or anyone think that Walmart is a career job, you deserve to be poor. Success depends upon ones choices in life. A 30 year associate career at Walmart, or even Costco, is what is deemed as a mentally challenged outlook on life.

 

[hortysir]

Costco pretty much destroys the cons' argument, doesn't it?

Not really.
He tells us he starts his employees at over $11/hr.
Raising the MW won't effect him, will it?

It will, however, effect how much his employees pay for their 'value meals' (as just one example that comes to mind).
Do you expect McDonalds corp to increase their payroll costs by +/- 20% and just absorb that cost without passing it on.

The cost of a lot of goods and services will skyrocket.
Then what?
Raise MW to $15/hr to try to keep up?

Obama made a remark in his SoU address about a couple, both making minimum wage, having a hard time raising their children.
If you're a "couple" (married or not) and you're both working MW jobs,,,,why did you have kids?

 

[arie2l]

You know, he can pay his employees more if he wants. He doesn't need the governments permission to give his workers a raise.

Apparently he DOES pay them more, AND, contrary to the RW meme, his business is successful. His employees seem to be happy & prosperous enough to shop at COSTCO.

I believe that what he's suggesting is that other businesses do the same. Create consumers. Henry Ford did the same.

 

[Black_Label]

Costco pretty much destroys the con argument, doesn't it?

Big time. The best part was Willard's wife pretending to be a "costco mom", even with PR stunts in the store, when the CEO of costco is an Obama supporter

 

[arie2l]

If you're a "couple" (married or not) and you're both working MW jobs,,,,why did you have kids?

Couldn't afford b/c? Had the kids before the economy soured to the point where they had to take MW jobs (perhaps having previously had family sustaining jobs which went away--to China)?


"What fools these mortals be"--Puck

 

[bendog]

yeah I don't see the rationale not to do so, given the state of the economy. College grads have an unemployment rate of around 4%, though many are underemployed, and there does not appear to be any lack of McDonald's type jobs. The real, as opposed to ideological fantasy, reason to not raise the min wage is that it would result in less entry level jobs over a short term. The negative would be that in two and half months we'll see college kids needing summer jobs.

 

[bendog]

Costco pretty much destroys the con argument, doesn't it?

Big time. The best part was Willard's wife pretending to be a "costco mom", even with PR stunts in the store, when the CEO of costco is an Obama supporter

Gee, imagine that. Sane v. Crazy wins at least 90% of the time.

 

[sfcalifornia]

Costco pretty much destroys the cons' argument, doesn't it?

Not in the least. But you go ahead and think that.

As a comparison of successful businesses, a comparison of Wal*mart and Costco isn't even close.

Costco looses, hands down.

If you or anyone think that Walmart is a career job, you deserve to be poor. Success depends upon ones choices in life. A 30 year associate career at Walmart, or even Costco, is what is deemed as a mentally challenged outlook on life.

I don't think anyone sets out considering a minimum wage job at Walmart as a career choice but you have no right to assume that lots of people have had other choices. Feeling a little superior today?

 

[g5000]

.
Most Costco workers have health insurance through Costco, and Costco paid their typical worker around $45,000 in 2011. Walmart-owned Sam's Club OTOH, pays its sales associates an average of $17,486 per year but-----but Costco has found that it's a lot more profitable in the long run to minimize employee turnover, maximize employee productivity, keep their employees healthy and-----and turn their employees into better consumers.

Win-win-win, Costco wins, Costco employees win, money circulates thru the economy/economy wins.





Costco CEO: Raise The Minimum Wage To More Than $10 Per Hour



President Barack Obama wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour. And the CEO of one of America's largest retailers says such a move would be good for workers and businesses alike. In fact, he says raise it even more.

On Tuesday, Costco CEO and President Craig Jelinek came out in support of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which aims to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, then adjust it after that for inflation.
"At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business," Jelinek said in a statement. "We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low."

"An important reason for the success of Costco&#8217;s business model is the attraction and retention of great employees," Jelinek added. "Instead of minimizing wages, we know it's a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty. We support efforts to increase the federal minimum wage."


<snip>
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If Costco's business model would be better for WalMart to follow, wouldn't Walmart follow that model?

Why do you feel it is necessary to FORCE Walmart to do so?

 

[Freewill]

Let's see. according to the OP, everyone that works at Cosco for little more then minimum wage is an excellent employee, everyone at WalMart is the pits. Normal for liberals to divide people then pillage one side.

Seems like everyone should be working at Cosco not Walmart, wonder why not. Maybe because Cosco doesn't employee as many? Does the CEO of Cosco benefit from an increase in minimum wage? Certainly.

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

The fake-liberal/ real-nutball divide isn't an issue in this discussion - at least among rational people of normal intelligence.

Raising the minimum wage won't hurt a single well managed business in the United States because most of them are already paying more than minimum wage.

The most discouraging part of the discussion above is that there are people stupid enough to believe EITHER the Costco or Wal Mart models are sustainable AS THEY ARE. Both businesses seem likely to survive their worst instincts (the last ten years or so), but neither will survive in its present format.

Next.

 

[nitroz]

Since Costco already has it's ducks in a row by efficiently managing it's funds, providing good pay rates for their employees, and maintaining great prices for their members, they have nothing to lose.

The strategy is that with this, everyone will either have to pay their employees more and corporate less (how it should be in the first place) or raise prices, which is passed on to the consumer. If other's raise prices, then Costco will have the bigger (or biggest) pricing advantage against the competition, which means more people will end up shopping there to save.

They are a great company overall, and because they have been great to their employees and had democratic values, they can more than handle the minimum wage increase.

everyone else is fucked for being to greedy.

 

[DiamondDave]

Costco gets to dictate this to other companies??

Nobody said it is not nice or good to pay for quality work from quality employees.. Just that the freedom to choose what you pay for a service is on you.. and if you succeed from it, fine.. if you fail, fine... if you have people beating down your door to work there, fine.. if you can't get anyone to apply, fine....


And if you think this was not something well calculated to say against a competitor, by the Target/Costco CEO, you are sadly mistaken

And you leftist saps bought it hook, line, and sinker

 

[Flopper]

Wait a minute. How can this be? A CEO pays his employees a good starting wage. He offers them health insurance. Encourages them to be loyal to Costco, and in turn, Costco treats them well.

HOW IS THIS BUSINESS STILL SURVIVING?

We've had all the Business 101 lectures from right wingers saying a business will go bankrupt doing this.

Oh, and Wal-Mart can get away with paying their employees the miminum and offering no health insurance ONLY BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT counters Wal-Mart with welfare and medicare/medicaid programs. You and I, the taxpayer, subsidize the helping hand to Wal-Marts employees so that Wal-Mart can rake in insane profit.

The success of any business depends on it's employees. Hire good people and pay a fair wage for a fair days work. This has worked for Costco and it can work any business. Profits were up 30% at Costco last quarter. Paying starvation wages benefits no one.

 

[jwoodie]

Do I have to spell it out? Minimum wage is paid to the least skilled workers in our economy, mostly for entry level positions. Employers pay a premium for more skilled workers, so if you raise the minimum wage you will also raise their wages. This not only raises prices, it also increases unemployment among less skilled/experienced workers. If raising the minimum wage is such a great idea, why not make it $50 per hour?

 

[Freewill]

Do I have to spell it out? Minimum wage is paid to the least skilled workers in our economy, mostly for entry level positions. Employers pay a premium for more skilled workers, so if you raise the minimum wage you will also raise their wages. This not only raises prices, it also increases unemployment among less skilled/experienced workers. If raising the minimum wage is such a great idea, why not make it $50 per hour?

I wondered why Unions were all for raising the minimum wage. Turns out their raises are based on the minimum wage. So they are being selfish bastards just like Walmart is accused.