Mention the name Wal-Mart and almost everyone knows what it is. Wal-Mart is one of the largest retailers in the world and is the largest private employer in the United States. The company employs over 1 million employees and has approximately 3,566 stores across the country. In 2003, Wal-Mart did $244.6 billion in sales and made a profit of $6 billion. A company of this size with such an enormous earning profit would seemingly be a great company to work for. However, that was not the case for many women who had worked for Wal-Mart. The company has the largest female workforce, which comprises over 72 percent of the hourly sales employees compare to male, which is less than 28 percent.
On June 2004, current and former Wal-Mart employees filed the largest lawsuit against the company regarding employment practices. In the pleading Duke v Wal-Mart, U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins had ruled that the current six women employees are permitted to represent other former Wal-Mart employees (roughly 1.6
English: Inside the Walmart (still branded as Wal-...
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
English: Supermercado de Wal-Mart in Spring Branch...million) to file a suit against the company for discrimination. The Judge noted that in their case, "the plaintiffs present largely uncontested descriptive statistics, which show that women working at Wal-Mart stores are paid less than men in every region, that pay disparities exist in most job categories, that salary gap widens over time, that women take longer to enter management positions, and that the higher one looks in the organization the lower the percentage of women" (WalMartclass, 2004).
If Wal-Mart employs over 1 million employees and most of them are women, then it is shocking that there are very limited women in managerial positions. Based on the 2001 statistical charts, there were only 39 females who occupied the Regional Vice President position, which made up 10.3 percent. In addition, the...