USA is on its way to being no better than a third world country, with rich dictators and all their fk buddiies at the top, and the rest of us poor chumps beneath them.
Know what's probably going to become one of the most lucrative career moves? Armed body guard for these pricks. Real talk.
Our store NEEDS to get new hires at a higher rate, or else the store is going to be doomed.
We don't have enough new employees to keep up with natural attrition, because we're in a suburban strip-mall area and every other business in the area starts at $3/hour more than Kroger does. We hire all the time, and the new people rarely stick around for more than a month or so, usually because someone else hires them for more. We're basically down to long-timers, the desperate and minors. Hell, the *only* reason I'm still there is because I started over halfway up the pay scale from prior experience. (And, for the area, the top end pay is actually pretty reasonable.)
I'd honestly rather have sufficient staffing and pay the new hires a reasonable wage than get a one-time bonus. No, I don't care if they don't have to "suffer like I did to earn it." Practically nobody is going to stick around four years before they catch up with what anyone else in the area would pay them.
Paying a bonus is very short sided, plus if your long term and not happy with your pay....why are you still here? (everyone wants more money even if they might be making big $$) Retail isn't want it used to be and the workforce is changing with retirement and normal attrition. In reality with the uptrend in HR policies/laws/social media/lawsuits, the Union is becoming outdated and unable to really fight for higher wages or other benefits. I have a feeling most contracts will be renegotiated before their expiration and new hires will make more and more and long term associates will get more, but the wage scale will be smaller. I suggest any associate that is complaining about their wages to use the Education Benefit to learn a "trade" which pays $$$$ and is very understaffed.
