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Low Wage Work Hurts Employees–And Customers

September 8, 2024 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

The poor more commonly they referred to themselves as the struggling class: They struggle economically and hold an often unfounded hope that things will get better. But you can’t work your way out of poverty in low-wage jobs. (© FlaglerLive)
The poor more commonly refer to themselves as the struggling class: They struggle economically and hold an often unfounded hope that things will get better. But you can’t work your way out of poverty in low-wage jobs. (© FlaglerLive)

By Emily Guerra

I’ve always felt that working in customer-facing jobs is my calling. I’m passionate about making people feel comfortable when they enter a business, be it a retail store or a restaurant.

But it was hard to keep that passion when I worked at Dollar General. Like workers at many other big retailers, we were so short-staffed and poorly trained that it was next to impossible to give good customer service.




My interview and first day on the job went well. Managers, co-workers, and customers all seemed pretty happy. The second day was a complete 180. All of a sudden I was thrown into my duties with zero training. They even scheduled me to close out the store that day without instructions.

Quickly I had shifts where I was the only worker for hours at a time, dealing with long lines of impatient customers, tons of merchandise to stock, and frustrated vendors subject to long wait times.

I frequently had to get overstock items from unstable top shelves and constantly worried I’d fall. The back door also wouldn’t close correctly — and even though I brought it up to management several times, it remained an easy way for anyone to sneak in.

I didn’t know it then, but Dollar General has repeatedly faced huge penalties for workplace safety violations.




Once I was called out to help with a truck delivery of refrigerated and frozen products. I went to grab a tote bag full and had to do a triple take because it was full of black mold. Another afternoon, I picked up a bag of potting soil to stock and realized it was covered with dead insects, which got all over the floor and other products.

ocd flaglerliveWhen I had problems like these with merchandise, I was expected to contact the warehouse myself. But that was hard to do, given how understaffed we were.

Dollar General isn’t the only tough place for retail employees. At many big stores, workers are short-handed and face difficult working conditions — even when their companies are highly profitable.

Where is all the money going? Well, I can tell you not

much went to me.

I made $14.75 an hour for part-time hours, even though I often wound up working full-time. After the first few weeks, my schedule became so unpredictable that I sometimes worked only a few hours a week. Eventually it just wasn’t worth all the hard work and stress, so I quit.

By contrast, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos made nearly $10 million last year — 521 times as much as a typical worker at his company, the Institute for Policy Studies reported recently.




Dollar General has also been taking profits that could go towards worker pay or fixing up their stores and spending it instead on stock buybacks. That’s when a company repurchases its own shares to inflate the value of its stock and make CEOs even richer. Between 2019 and 2023, the company spent $9 billion on this financial scam.

I also learned from the Institute’s report that 88 percent of Dollar General workers who are eligible to participate in the company 401(k) plan don’t have one dime in their accounts. Low-wage workers like me just don’t earn enough to be able to save for our retirement.

I saw up close how a business that’s focused on exploiting employees to make those at the top even richer isn’t just bad for workers like me, but for customers as well. And anyone who’s worked for one of these low-wage companies can tell you Dollar General is hardly unique.

If we want a strong economy, we need to do more to make sure all workers can make a decent living and feel safe and respected in their workplace.

Emily Guerra is a former Dollar General employee from Canton, Oklahoma.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jim says

    September 8, 2024 at 3:58 pm

    The Fall of the Roman Empire was in part due to the wealth gap, and that may well be the fate of modern civilization. Here is a link to the pay gap between CEOs and average worker pay in 2018 by country: https://www.statista.com/statistics/424159/pay-gap-between-ceos-and-average-workers-in-world-by-country/ . It is unconscionable to many, but apparently widely accepted globally in business. It was my understanding that Germany had set a ratio of 20:1, but I guess that is not the case, as it is listed as 136:1. One would think there would be many potential solutions to this inequity. As long as boards of directors are paid to rubberstamp compensation, they won’t do it. Shareholders won’t vote for it, as they’d rather profits be distributed to them, don’t mind taking scraps after the CEOs, and workers be damned. If average worker made $60K, CEO made $1.2M (20x), workers and shareholders shared profits (workers could be shareholders), life would be good for all. It might seem the short-term answer would be to simply raise taxes on the CEOs, but they respond by increasing prices to increase their compensation or creating other loopholes…

    1
  2. Atwp says

    September 8, 2024 at 5:14 pm

    Good article. That situation happens all over the country.

    1
  3. Ed P says

    September 9, 2024 at 7:31 am

    Fact checked
    CEO Todd Vasos was hired in October 2023. Less than one year.
    Total package worth 8.98 million, comprised of 7.7 % salary and 92.7 % bonuses.
    Hence his salary equates to $652,461 – still a tall number.
    All the existing problems can’t be his fault, he’s too new.
    It might be the store manager that is at fault.
    Always more to every story.
    Dollar Generals part time starting hourly rate is competitive with other big box retailers.

  4. Sherman says

    September 9, 2024 at 8:43 am

    This is why people vote for unions then at least they get livable wages to survive. And if you people keep voting in the Cult Trump Party forget a livable wage because all they do is keeping giving breaks to the rich.
    Wise up people and vote for the people that want to help you not hurt you.

    3
  5. Stephen says

    September 9, 2024 at 9:03 am

    The govenor wants to change that with unions coming to Florida. It is about time.

    2
  6. T says

    September 9, 2024 at 10:33 am

    Well gop are capitalist they said it many times I don’t understand how people vote to hurt the working men and women.

    1
  7. FlaPharmTech says

    September 9, 2024 at 11:54 am

    Emily, thank you for writing this. I use the DG Saturday coupon for canned cat food, which is ridiculously expensive. I have an elderly cat who is currently only eating Fancy Feast. And, I work in retail pharmacy. My employer does better than DG in many respects, but certainly the pay is not great, hence my having to use the DG coupon. It’s a vicious cycle. I, too, am trying to improve my lot in life.

    1
  8. Ray W. says

    September 9, 2024 at 9:51 pm

    To a measure of fanfare and local acclaim, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s limited their pay to seven times that of the lowest paid employee. When they were bought out, they gathered the spoils. Nonetheless, there was a measure of selflessness to their pay scheme.

    1

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