NORTHAMPTON — Shoppers at the North King Street Wal-Mart lauded the national chain's decision to raise entry-level wages to $ 9 an hour, while local labor activists contended it's only a step toward paying a living wage for the majority of workers.
"We've been in the thick of the struggle to get Wal-Mart to do something like this, so we're extremely pleased when we seem to succeed," Jon Weissman, coordinator of Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, said Saturday. In recent years, the Springfield-based labor activist group and others have organized demonstrations at Wal-Mart locations to protest the company's low wages, which they argue forces many to rely on government assistance to supplement their earnings.
The Bentonville, Arkansas, retailer announced Thursday that it would award modest raises to about a half-million of its U.S. workers. In April, the company said it will increase its starting wage to $ 9 an hour. All employees earning less than that will see their wages increase. In February of 2016, Wal-Mart "associates" will see their pay bumped to at least $ 10 a hour, with newly hired workers starting at $ 9 an hour. Those employees will be given a raise after six months, according to a release.
Locals shopping Saturday at the Northampton Wal-Mart afternoon met the reaction positively.
"I think it's great," said Leverett resident Judy Raphael. "It's human."
Raphael said she doesn't like to shop at Wal-Mart because she doesn't want to support their poor wage policies, but as a retired person on a fixed income, sometimes she has no other choice.
"I only shop here occasionally to get something I know I can't get cheaper somewhere else," she said.
Southampton resident Jen Peterson said any wage increase is good for people. She noted that Wal-Mart may be "getting the ball rolling" in encouraging other retailers to raise their wages.
Peterson, who owns Northampton School of Dance, said she pays her employees more than the minimum wage, which is $ 9 an hour in Massachusetts. She says she feels obligated to pay her dance teachers a higher wage because of the amount of before-class prep time they put in and the fact that the job is only part-time.
Attorney and labor activist Kitty Callaghan of Northampton said she was shocked when she learned that some of Wal-Mart's employees earn less than $ 9 an hour.
"They're the biggest private employer in the country," she said. "Their profits are very high and they have people working very hard, some standing for seven hours a day."
Callaghan is a member of Living Wage Western Mass, which advocates that all workers should earn a living wage, a figure tied to the Consumer Price Index.
In 2009, the organization succeeded in persuading the Northampton City Council to pass a resolution urging city businesses to pay their employees a living wage. In 2014, that wage was $ 12.97 an hour for a single person living in Northampton without children. After Wal-Mart's wage increase, the company says, its full-time hourly workers will earn an average of $ 13 an hour, and part-timers will earn $ 10 an hour.
"I think they are doing this under pressure," Callaghan said. "I'll say that it is a step in the right direction, but I think they have the capability of doing much better."
Callaghan said the company should treat its employees as an invaluable asset in achieving its financial goals and share its large profits with them through higher wages.
"On the one hand, it's a victory. On the other hand, it's a small victory," Weissman said.
Weissman believes the move will not directly affect workers in Massachusetts, where the minimum wage was raised to $ 9 an hour in January.
However, he predicts the move will have a ripple effect across the economy.
"Any positive shift in the business model by the biggest employer in the world is going to be good," he said.
State Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, said she was delighted to hear of Wal-Mart's decision.
"Wal-Mart has heeded the many protests from around the country and are beginning to accept the fact that their employees cannot live on the wages they are paid," she said. "I think it is a good first step, which I hope is on the way to $ 15 an hour."
In November, Story stood on the protest line with Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice advocates at the Hadley Wal-Mart.
She says she hopes other employers follow the retailer's lead.
"For years, people who work full time at minimum wage cannot support themselves and their families," she said. "They either have to have another income in their family or have one or two other jobs."
As part of the plan announced Thursday, Wal-Mart also stated that steps will be taken to offer more choice in employee scheduling. Starting in 2016, it will offer some workers fixed schedules each week. a move that will give employees more predictable paychecks.
"I think the scheduling thing is really important, especially for families with kids," said Kristine DeNucce of Holyoke, who was shopping at the Northampton Wal-Mart. "Consistency is a problem with a lot of jobs."
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com.
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