Inequality for SaleA Survey of Major Retailers’ Wage and Benefit Practices

By Ryan Erickson June 2016

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WWW.AMERICANPROGRESSACTION.ORG

Inequality for SaleA Survey of Major Retailers’ Wage and Benefit Practices

By Ryan Erickson June 2016

1 Introduction and summary

4 Survey of companies’ wages and benefits

6 Survey responses: Companies who gave workers a raise

10 Other companies that raised wages for employees

13 Wage and benefit practices of other Fortune 500 retailers

16 Economic security policies for working families

22 Conclusion

23 About the author and acknowledgments

24 Endnotes

Contents

1 Center for American Progress Action Fund | Inequality for Sale

Introduction and summary

Since 2014, a number of major American retailers that employ significant num-bers of low-wage workers—including Wal-Mart, T.J.Maxx, Target, Gap, Ikea, and Costco—have announced their plans to raise wages.1 These announcements have received positive attention in the media and among advocates for increasing the minimum wage. Many observers, however, were quick to ask: Would other com-panies follow suit?

These companies’ announcements have come in the midst of record corporate profits. Since rebounding during the Great Recession, corporate profits have soared, peaking at $1.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2015.2 Retail-sector profits have risen substantially above their prerecession highs, hitting $160.8 billion at the start of 2014.3 This robust corporate profit growth, however, has not translated into major gains for workers. Workers’ wages have remained comparatively flat, significantly trailing corporate profit growth.4 The retailers’ announcements sig-naled an important shift: After years of sluggish wage growth, retail workers would finally enjoy the benefits of this record profit run.

The retail companies’ moves to raise wages hardly have been acts of charity. The companies have framed their decisions as prudent business moves that would ben-efit their workers, customers, and businesses overall, reasoning that happier, more financially secure workers would reduce employee turnover and improve customers’ experiences.5 In announcing his company’s decision to raise wages for the second time in two years, Ikea U.S. President Lars Petersson said, “This latest wage increase is just the most recent in a series of investments grounded in our commitment to have a positive impact on our co-workers (sic) lives.”6 Too often, retailers see raising wages and maintaining profitability as an either/or choice rather than as two sides of the same coin. In fact, research indicates that investing in employees and offering good wages and benefits can improve retailers’ performance.7 Although wage growth in the broader economy has remained flat over the long term, very recently, employ-ers have been boosting wages to attract more prospective workers to open jobs at their firms. With more jobs available following the recovery from the recession, workers can be more selective and seek jobs that offer better wages.8

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Except for highly compensated executives, very little information on companies’ wage and benefit practices is publicly available. To gain a clearer understand-ing of whether other major retailers that have not announced moves to boost wages or strengthen benefits are improving their pay and benefits, the Center for American Progress Action Fund partnered with ThinkProgress to send media inquiries to all Fortune 500 retailers that employ workers in retail stores. The Fortune 500 represents the largest U.S. companies by revenue. Retailers from this list generally represent the largest U.S.-headquartered retailers by revenue, and thus the leaders in the retail industry. In the inquiry, companies were asked about their wage and benefit practices in five key areas: the lowest wage they pay to their employees; whether they provide paid sick time to workers; whether they provide paid family and medical leave; whether they have scheduling policies that guarantee workers both stability and flexibility when assigning shifts; and what actions they take to ensure that men and women are being paid equally for equal work. Company policies must address these five areas in order for workers to have a strong shot at economic security.

Responses to the survey, combined with publicly available information, provide strong evidence that large retailers are increasing wages for their retail workers and that doing so is good for companies. Nonetheless, most companies surveyed did not respond, and four companies formally declined, demonstrating an overall reticence on the part of major retailers to make public the wages and benefits they offer to their store employees.

Understanding the wages and benefits of retail workers, however, is key to understanding the economic security of a major segment of low-wage workers in the United States today. As of 2014, more than 4.8 million Americans—or about 5.8 percent of the U.S. workforce—were employed as retail salespeople—more people than in any other comparable category of occupation.9 However, retail jobs pay significantly less than jobs overall. The average wage for retail salespeople was 49 percent lower than the average wage for all workers in 2014, and the average wage for a cashier was 57 percent lower.10 In addition, of all workers paid at the statutory federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, 25.4 percent are employed in retail trade, second only to workers employed in the leisure and hospitality industry.11 Determining the minimum benefits that major retailers offer their retail workers gives us a key baseline for understanding the economic challenges facing retail workers and the basic level of economic security that their jobs guarantee—and how these wages and benefits improve upon the minimum offered by law.

As of 2014, more

than 4.8 million

Americans—

or about 5.8

percent of the U.S.

workforce—were

employed as retail

salespeople—more

people than in any

other comparable

category of

occupation.

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However, with the exception of companies that responded to the CAP Action survey or have otherwise publicly committed to wage and benefit improvements, the only detailed wage information available to the public on major retailers’ pay is the compensation these retailers give to their executives. And here, we find another suggestion of growing inequality between workers and executives. In this report, we provide an analysis of Fortune 500 retailers’ executive compensation in relation to both retail cashiers and minimum wage workers, and we show that this growth in major retailers’ executive compensation is dramatically outpacing growth in compensation for a key subset of retail workers—cashiers—as well as outpacing a stagnant minimum wage. As leaders in their industry, these Fortune 500 retailers make plain a story playing out in our broader economy: While the economic recovery has been very good for those at the top of the income spec-trum, many workers at the bottom are struggling more than ever to stay afloat.

All the same, the patchwork approach of raises for workers at some companies but not for workers at others proves that there is no substitute for strong national, state, and local policies that enhance workers’ economic security. And while lead-ing companies’ actions to improve wages and benefits are laudable, these actions still may be insufficient to guarantee their workers a basic level of economic security. Here, strong policies can ensure that retail workers are guaranteed access to pay and benefits that ensure a greater level of economic security regardless of where they work. Relatedly, the patchwork nature of corporate actions in support of workers’ economic security also demonstrates why it is crucial to strengthen and protect the ability of retail workers to unionize: When companies will not provide their workers’ wages and benefits that guarantee basic economic security, their workers must be able to bargain for a better deal.

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Survey of companies’ wages and benefits

To assess the wage and benefit practices at major retailers in the United States, CAP Action and ThinkProgress sent a short survey in the form of a media inquiry to each retail company on the Fortune 500 list. Retailers whose websites included a form for dedicated media inquiries were contacted by email; if electronic contact information was unavailable for a company, we called its phone number. We attempted to contact each company at least twice. To determine the list of compa-nies for the survey, CAP Action and ThinkProgress screened the Fortune 500 list for retailers with major stores or retail outfits, intending to capture all companies on the Fortune 500 that employ large numbers of retail workers.12 The Fortune 500 represents the largest firms by revenue in the United States, and the sample chosen represents the largest retailers with U.S.-based operations. From this list, we limited our analysis to publicly traded companies headquartered in the United States in order to ensure consistent comparisons to other forms of financial data available through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, resulting in a final list of 36 independent Fortune 500 retailers.13 Ikea also participated in this survey; the company was included because of its significant U.S. retail presence and its previous, well-publicized actions on wages.14 The survey asked these companies for information about corporate policies in five key areas important to understanding workers’ compensation and benefits. The questions asked each company about wage floors, worker access to paid sick leave, the availability of paid family and medical leave, practices used for scheduling workers, and the way by which a company ensures that men and women are paid equally for equal work.

The four companies that responded to our media inquiries demonstrated that some companies set wage and benefit policies that go beyond federal, state, and local standards. Each of the companies that responded had previously publi-cized their intention to increase employees’ wages, though the survey responses provided information on the companies’ wage and benefit practices that was not widely available before. These survey responses, along with other publicly avail-able information on recent actions companies have taken to boost wages and ben-efits for employees, demonstrate that the traditionally low-wage retail industry can

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invest more in workers’ economic stability. The companies that responded to the survey did not always answer the inquiry’s questions in complete detail, and some responses omitted key information about wage and benefit practices. Nonetheless, the responses show that some employers have instituted wage and benefit policies that have brought significant gains to their retail workers.

That being said, the small sample of responses and lack of other publicly available information on retailers’ wage and benefit practices indicate that most retailers would strongly prefer to keep secret the information about wages and benefits that they offer to employees. Some organizations, such as Glassdoor Inc. and PayScale Inc., use crowdsourced data gathered from employees of companies to estimate the average earnings and benefits for specific positions at a company. However, the inconsistent nature of crowdsourced wage information makes it difficult to establish wage and benefit floors, often because it can be difficult to verify infor-mation submitted on an individual profile from a crowdsourced site.15 Meanwhile, corporate sources and independent reports are often vague or silent on what specific wages and benefits companies provide.16

The media inquiries to companies did not go unheeded: After the inquiries were sent, CAP Action was made aware of a response sent by the Retail Industry Leaders Association, or RILA, which describes itself as a “trade association of the leading retail companies in each retail vertical.”17 RILA’s members include many of the companies that received inquiries, including Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, and Home Depot.18 In an email, RILA surveyed its members on how they planned to respond to the CAP Action/ThinkProgress wage and benefit inquiries. A request for comment from RILA about the survey did not receive a response.

Although not comprehensive, the five survey areas covered in this report—a worker’s minimum wage, availability of paid sick days, access to paid family and medical leave, observance of fair scheduling practices, and whether women and men are paid equally for equal work—represent a balanced sample of actions that companies can take to increase their workers’ economic security.19 The survey generated some promising responses that indicate how some retailers’ actions are helping their workers gain more economic security. However, the silence from many companies and lack of evidence of proactive steps on wages and benefits make it nearly impossible to determine what wages and benefits other major retailers are offering to their employees.

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Survey responses: Companies who gave workers a raise

The responses received from the four participating companies—Ikea, Costco, Gap, and Target—are detailed below and supplemented by supporting public information when available. While all the presented findings are self-reported by these companies and thus difficult to verify through independent means, the com-panies’ participation indicates a significant statement in itself, considering that the majority of major retailers have not made public their wage and benefit practices.

Ikea North America Services LLC

Rather than establishing a broad corporate wage floor, Ikea committed in June 2014 to setting employees’ wages based on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, which accounts for variations in housing, transportation, tax, and other costs to set a “living wage” in different regions.20 Ikea reported that adopting this policy increased the company’s average minimum wage to $10.76 per hour in 2014—an increase of 17 percent over the company’s average minimum wage before the increase.21 In 2015, Ikea’s wage adjustments based on the Living Wage Calculator increased its average hourly minimum wage to $11.87, and the company announced that all Ikea stores in the United States would pay workers at least $10 per hour.22

In its survey response, Ikea also reported that it offers its workers between 20 hours and 40 hours of sick time each year “depending on their status,” and offers medical disability leave to its workers—a benefit that starts at 100 percent of a worker’s pay and then decreases to 50 percent of pay depending on the length of a worker’s time away from work.23 Ikea workers do not contribute to the cost of the medical disability program. Additionally, Ikea schedules its employees three weeks in advance, giving them significantly more notice than other companies that responded to the survey. On ensuring equal pay, Ikea offers training to man-agement-level workers “on a broad level,” according to the survey.24 Ikea workers

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are allowed to discuss their pay openly with peers, and the company is currently “revising the process in which we review all compensation bands, positions and ensuring (sic) there is equity across all positions and co-workers.”25

Information provided to CAP Action indicates that the steps Ikea has taken are already showing promise. For instance, the company saw a 3 percent drop in turnover between January 2015 and January 2016, signaling that its wage increase is reducing the company’s turnover costs.26 According to a 2012 Center for American Progress report, replacing employees costs companies around 16 percent of a worker’s annual salary for jobs that pay $30,000 or less per year.27

Costco Wholesale Corp.

Costco responded that the absolute minimum wage for employees in its stores is $13 per hour for both full- and part-time employees, substantially exceeding the national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.28 According to Costco’s survey response, both full- and part-time employees are eligible for up to nine paid sick days each year; although some cities and states have different standards, Costco says that its companywide paid sick days policy generally meets or exceeds local requirements and adjusts where necessary to comply.29 In an industry where only 27 percent of retail workers have access to temporary disability leave,30 Costco offers paid disability leave at 60 percent of employee pay.

Its survey response indicates that Costco also observes some best practices for reducing gender pay disparities. Pay is set at the company level—rather than the supervisor level—on a scale based on the number of hours an employee has worked. Costco also does not explicitly prohibit employees from discussing pay. Both of these policies help ensure that pay for women is not set arbitrarily lower than it is for men. On scheduling, Costco’s survey response says that schedules are posted on “Monday before the work week”; assuming that the workweek begins on the following Sunday, six days of advance notice is less than the two weeks of advance notice traditionally sought by advocates for fair scheduling practices.31 Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Risk Management Pat Callans, who responded for Costco, indicated that the company would make changes to its scheduling policy in March 2016, but a request for more details on any changes was not answered, and further details about changes to Costco’s scheduling prac-tices after March 2016 could not be found.

In an industry

where only

27 percent of

retail workers

have access

to temporary

disability leave,

Costco offers paid

disability leave

at 60 percent of

employee pay.

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At a panel hosted by the Center for American Progress in 2015, Costco Co-Founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal stated, “Employers have to understand that paying good wages is not altruism, it’s good business,” arguing that Costco’s approach helps its workers be more productive.32 Sinegal noted that turnover rates for Costco were significantly lower than the industry average: Including even part-time and seasonal workers, Costco had an employee turnover rate of less than 10 percent, he said.33

The Gap Inc.

In February 2014, Gap was among the first in a series of retail employers to announce that it would voluntarily raise wages for its store employees, increasing its national minimum wage to $9 per hour in 2014 and $10 per hour in 2015.34 According to Gap spokesperson Laura Wilkinson, this move ultimately benefited 60,000 U.S. employees.35

According to its survey response, Gap also provides paid maternity leave through its short-term disability program at 60 percent of pay for full-time employees. Neither Wilkinson nor other publicly available information about Gap’s employee benefits specifies exactly how many paid sick days the company offers to employ-ees of its stores, but Gap’s survey response indicates that full-time employees have access to a “generous paid time off program,” and a company website detailing Gap’s employee benefits describes Gap’s paid time off benefit plan as “one of the most competitive plans in the industry, providing [paid time off] days for vaca-tion, personal time, or illness.”36

Gap also has been recognized previously for its leadership in the area of equal pay. Gap reports that its women employees are paid at a “one-to-one ratio” compared to their male counterparts across the organization and that there is no wage gap between women and men across the company, either in its U.S. or international operations. In 2014, Gap became the first Fortune 500 company to seek outside validation for its pay equity claims. Exponential Talent LLC—a strategy firm that helps employers build more diverse workforces—analyzed a data set Gap pro-vided of all its employees’ pay information and confirmed the company’s assertion that it pays women and men equally for equal work.37

Gap reports that its

women employees

are paid at a

“one-to-one ratio”

compared to their

male counterparts

across the

organization.

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Gap is currently in the process of changing its scheduling practices: According to Wilkinson, Gap phased out its use of on-call scheduling by the end of September 2015. Gap also committed to giving its employees 10 days to 14 days of advance notice for upcoming shifts; when surveyed, the company said that it expected all of its stores to observe this practice by early 2016.

Target Corp.

Target submitted a partial response to the survey, saying that the company does not “typically provide the level of specific details that [CAP Action and ThinkProgress are] inquiring about” and did not provide a specific, company-wide wage floor.38 However, the company announced in April 2016 that it would pay all of its workers at least $10 per hour, with most employees who earn less than $10 per hour seeing a raise in May 2016. This comes on the heels of the company’s 2015 announcement that it would be raising pay to at least $9 per hour for all employees.39

Target’s response did reveal some of the steps the company has taken for its work-ers: providing two weeks of paid parental leave to new parents—both mothers and fathers—and offering these two weeks in addition to the “six or eight weeks” of paid short-term disability leave available to birthing mothers only.40 Target’s survey response indicated that it offers what it calls “well-being time” to its employees, though it does not specify the qualifications for using this benefit or how much of this time is available.41 All three types of leave are available to work-ers only after a predetermined, unspecified period of employment. Target also reported that it offers sick leave “where required by law.”42

According to Target’s survey response, “Hourly workers at Target establish the hours they are available to work, and Target builds schedules around workers’ availabil-ity.”43 Schedules are posted 10 days in advance except in states and cities where regu-lations require more advanced notice, such as San Francisco, where employers are required to notify retail employees two weeks in advance.44 On equal pay, Target says that it has “comprehensive team member development and training programs” and that it “does not tolerate any kind of discrimination in the workplace” but declined to offer more specificity on training programs or other measures it takes to ensure that there are not gender-based gaps in employees’ pay.45

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Other companies that raised wages for employees

In addition to the companies that returned surveys to CAP Action and ThinkProgress, other major retailers have announced plans to raise wages for their store employees in the previous two years.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Wal-Mart announced in February 2015 that it would raise wages for all its employees to $9 per hour that year and said it would raise wages to $10 per hour for current employees by February 2016.46 Employees starting after January 1, 2016, will earn at least $9 per hour at first but $10 per hour after completing a Wal-Mart training program.47 Wal-Mart claims that following these changes, the average wage paid to all full-time hourly employees will rise to $13.38 per hour, and the average wage paid to all part-time hourly employ-ees will rise to $10.58 per hour.48

Wal-Mart also announced changes to its scheduling policies: The company said that by the end of 2016, it would offer some of its workers fixed schedules and would set workers’ schedules at least two-and-a-half weeks in advance.49 Additionally, the company changed a standing practice that makes it harder for workers to use paid sick days; full-time Wal-Mart workers now receive six paid sick days each year.50 In early 2016, Wal-Mart announced the introduction of a new “Short Term Disability Basic Plan,” available to its full-time workers at no cost. The program will cover 50 percent of a worker’s average weekly pay—up to $200—for up to 26 weeks.51

TJX Companies Inc.

TJX Companies Inc., the parent company of retailers T.J.Maxx, HomeGoods, and Marshalls, announced in February 2015 that it would raise the minimum wage it

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pays its employees to $9 per hour starting in June 2015.52 According to a company press release, TJX committed to an even higher wage in 2016, saying, “Sometime during 2016, all hourly U.S. store Associates who have been employed for six months or more will earn at least $10 per hour.”53

As for other benefits for hourly employees, the company’s website says it offers “optional participation in … short-term disability (if applicable)” and “competi-tive paid time off.”54 Because TJX declined to provide a response to the survey, we were unable to determine how easily accessible these benefits are to TJX’s retail workers. A 2015 investigation by the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, however, confirmed that TJX divisions T.J.Maxx and Marshalls do not use on-call scheduling in New York.55

Whole Foods Market Inc.

Whole Foods offers wages above the national minimum wage—a minimum of $10 per hour, according to The Huffington Post.56 Moreover, the company uses a formula to cap compensation for its executive officers and does not pay salaries to its executive officers that exceed 19 times the company’s average annual wage. The company’s average annual wage for all employees was $19.70 in 2015—signifi-cantly more than the $12.67-per-hour average wage for retail workers nationwide as of May 2015.57

Additionally, Whole Foods makes all company employees’ compensation infor-mation available to any inquiring employee—a feature that may allow employees to spot and rectify gender-based wage disparities.58 Whole Foods’ website states that its employees have access to paid time off. However, it does not specify how employees gain access to the paid time off, which types of paid time off are avail-able to which workers, or what the conditions are for using the paid time off.59

Other known retail actions on wages

In addition to the companies above, a few others have reported actions on wages. Ross Stores Inc., a Fortune 500 retailer headquartered in California, announced in May 2015 that it would boost the minimum pay available to its employees to $9 per hour in 2015.60 Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. also signaled in 2015 that it was planning to increase base pay for its workers. However, the company did not

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specify a target wage floor or which workers would benefit, only that its planned wage increase was “to continue to assure that we preserve our ability to attract and retain the best associates.”61 Retailer Dollar General Corp. stated in 2015 that it pays all full-time employees above the federal minimum wage, and only 12 percent of its part-time workers earn the federal minimum wage.62

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Wage and benefit practices of other Fortune 500 retailers

The responses to the CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey and other retailers’ announced plans show momentum on increasing wages and benefits for retail workers. However, the lack of responses to the inquiry demonstrates that large retail companies are likely reluctant to disclose wage and benefit information.

We do know, however, that many retail workers depend on public assistance even as the executives of the companies they work for continue to receive staggering compensation packages. Because their wages are insufficient, many workers earning at or around the minimum wage depend on public assistance to cover basic necessities. Among the bottom 10 percent of wage earners—workers paid less than $7.42 per hour—about 60 percent receive some form of government assistance, including key tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, food or housing assistance, Medicaid, and other forms of assistance.63 Retail workers in general are disproportionately represented among recipi-ents of public assistance, with about 36 percent of workers in the retail sector using public assistance of some form.64 A 2014 report from Americans for Tax Fairness, released prior to Wal-Mart’s decision to raise wages, estimated that Wal-Mart received $6.2 billion annually in taxpayer subsidies in the form of public assistance given to its employees.65

Unlike retail store worker data, compensation data for executive officers at these retailers are accessible—publicly traded companies must make annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and demonstrate the substantial gaps between executive compensation and retail store worker pay.

The filings reveal a narrative of growing inequality: Since 2009, the federal mini-mum wage has not increased at all, and the average wage for retail cashiers has risen only slightly—about 10 percent over the same period, without adjusting for inflation. By contrast, the average rate of growth for top executive pay at major retailers is 74.3 percent, again without adjusting for inflation.66

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FIGURE 1

Fortune 500 retail executive pay growth is far outpacing growth for minimum wage workers and cashiers

Magnitude of low-wage worker compensation vs. executive compensation

Sources: Author's calculations based on Securities and Exchange Commission �lings and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009 and 2015. See U.S. Securities and Exhange Commission, "Search EDGAR," available at http://edgar.sec.gov/ (last accessed June 2016); Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment Statistics,” available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/ (last accessed June 2016).

Minimum wageworker

Averagecashier

Top-paid executive

2015

Top-paid executive

2009

Top-paid executive

2015

Top-paid executive

2009

520 times 714 times 412 times 513 times

To highlight the uneven rate of pay growth between retail executives, an average retail cashier, and a minimum wage worker, we compared the reported pay of major retailers’ highest-paid executives against the pay of both a minimum wage worker and an average retail cashier between 2009 and 2015. Overall, the highest-paid executives at retail companies earned approximately 714 times as much as a worker working full time at the minimum wage and 513 times as much as an average cashier working full time.67 This reflects an increase from 2009, the last year that the federal minimum wage was increased: That year, retail CEOs earned, on average, 520 times what a minimum wage worker earned and 412 times what an average retail cashier earned.68

Company

Highest-paid executive Pay growth

2009 2015 Between 2009 and 2015

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. $28,396,605 $19,535,123 -31.21%

CVS Health Corp. $30,429,113 $28,943,054 -4.88%

Costco Wholesale Corp. $2,737,012 $6,342,124 131.72%

The Kroger Co. $10,347,083 $11,746,391 13.52%

The Home Depot Inc. $9,927,573 $11,562,440 16.47%

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. $6,886,651 $20,107,874 191.98%

Target Corp. $13,306,634 $16,946,337 27.35%

Lowe's Cos. $11,667,358 $13,155,164 12.75%

FIGURE 1

Retail-sector executive pay growth

Top retail executive pay grew 74 percent, on average, between 2009 and 2015

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Company

Highest-paid executive Pay growth

2009 2015 Between 2009 and 2015

Best Buy Co. $2,379,706 $12,937,294 443.65%

Sears Holdings Corp. $3,571,625 $4,300,585 20.41%

Publix Super Markets Inc. $916,705 $1,249,747 36.33%

The TJX Companies Inc. $8,489,351 $28,692,391 237.98%

Macy's Inc. $16,092,487 $11,695,324 -27.32%

Rite Aid Corp. $2,288,811 $11,005,671 380.85%

Staples Inc. $10,759,001 $9,863,575 -8.32%

Kohl's Department Stores Inc. $9,037,962 $10,698,036 18.37%

Dollar General Corp. $4,770,193 $8,723,001 82.86%

Supervalu Inc. $12,129,138 $6,917,850 -42.97%

The Gap Inc. $5,037,290 $6,237,037 23.82%

Whole Foods Market Corp. $828,107 $2,086,416 151.95%

Nordstrom Inc. $4,608,400 $3,513,102 -23.77%

J.C. Penney Co. $8,789,044 $12,816,574 45.82%

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. $8,697,028 $19,409,668 123.18%

L Brands Inc. $10,821,970 $27,168,100 151.05%

Ross Stores Inc. $10,599,729 $10,157,789 -4.17%

Advance Auto Parts Inc. $3,691,070 $7,362,643 99.47%

AutoZone Inc. $3,052,765 $5,351,693 75.31%

GameStop Inc. $4,313,153 $9,139,897 111.91%

Dollar Tree Inc. $4,728,035 $9,529,710 101.56%

TravelCenters of America LLC $2,352,675 $3,932,970 67.17%

O'Reilly Automotive Inc. $3,541,095 $5,315,898 50.12%

Casey's General Stores Inc. $1,495,434 $3,401,786 127.48%

Foot Locker Inc. $8,595,665 $8,620,567 0.29%

Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. $7,414,881 $8,674,647 16.99%

Barnes & Noble Inc. $2,288,135 $3,874,755 69.34%

Tractor Supply Co. $7,443,446 $6,556,404 -11.92%

Average rate of growth for most highly compensated executive 74.31%

Source: Securities and Exchange Commission DEF 14A filings for each company from 2009 and 2015. See U.S. Securities and Exhange Commission, "Search EDGAR," available at http://edgar.sec.gov/ (last accessed June 2016).

Among major retailers, the findings are clear: Top executive pay, already dramatically higher than minimum wage and average cashier pay, is pulling even further away from minimum wage workers and cashiers, two key segments of retail employees.

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Economic security policies for working families

Some major retailers have made strides in the wages and benefits they offer work-ers. However, the lack of transparency on retailers’ wage and benefit practices underscores the importance of implementing strong employment policies at the federal, state, and local levels. Doing so will ensure that all retail employees, not just workers at high-road employers, can count on wages and benefits that allow them to support and care for their families. Additionally, since there is no way to verify whether companies that have committed to wage and benefit improvements are honoring their pledges, strong national, state, and local laws guaranteeing workers better wages and benefits would ensure that a basic level of economic security is not left to the whims of retail employers.

The CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey makes clear that federal, state, and local policymakers should support five key actions to boost retail workers.

Raise the minimum wage

If retailers expect workers to work for the minimum wage and benefits allowed under law, then companies are doing their workers a disservice. To say that living on the minimum wage is difficult is a significant understatement: Even assuming that a worker takes no unpaid leave, a person working 40 hours per week and 52 weeks per year at the federal minimum wage earns just $15,080 each year—or $940 below the federal poverty level for a family of two.69 This income is com-pletely insufficient for parents working full time to support a child and themselves, especially considering the widespread agreement among experts that the federal poverty level falls far short of what it takes to make ends meet.70

Researchers have developed several alternative measures of a living wage, includ-ing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, which estimates a “family’s likely minimum food, child care, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items,

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etc.) costs” by geographic area.71 According to the calculator, in Oklahoma—a state with one of the lowest costs of living in the country and a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour—a single worker with no dependents would need to earn about $9.49 per hour, or $19,739 per year.72 Rent for a two-bedroom apartment aver-ages $745 per month in Oklahoma, or $8,940 per year—59 percent of annual earnings for a person working full time on the minimum wage.73 At the opposite end of the spectrum is Virginia, a state with a high cost of living where the mini-mum wage is also $7.25 per hour. Virginians, according to the calculator, would need to earn $12.36 per hour, or about $25,709 per year working full time—a full $10,629 more than what someone would earn in a year working for the mini-mum wage.74 The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Virginia is $1,167 per month, or $14,004 per year—a full 93 percent of the yearly pay for someone earning the minimum wage.75

National, state, and local proposals to raise the minimum wage can help work-ers and their families gain a fair shot at economic stability. The Raise the Wage Act of 2015, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), would raise the nationwide minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020, benefiting 35 million workers and increasing their wages by a total of nearly $80 billion.76 Raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour would especially benefit women, who would make up 56 percent of affected workers, and black and Latino workers, 35 percent and 38 percent of whom would benefit, respectively.77 Additionally, retail employees have played a major role in worker-led campaigns advocating for increases to the minimum wage, especially the Fight for $15, a nationwide movement of workers in a variety of industries calling for a $15-per-hour minimum wage and the right to form a union without retaliation.78 Fight for $15 has brought attention to the urgent need to improve low-wage workers’ pay; in early 2016, the movement achieved two major victories, as California and New York became the first two states to mandate raising their minimum wages to $15 per hour within a few years.79

Mandate paid sick days

Lack of paid sick days can pose significant challenges for workers, their families, and companies. Many people go to work sick or leave their sick children at home alone because they fear that they will be fired for missing work. Nationally, 39 percent of private-sector workers, or about 44 million people, do not have access to paid sick days—including 44 percent of black workers and nearly half of Latino

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workers.80 Only 47 percent of private-sector retail workers can take a day off to recover from an illness or to care for a sick child without losing pay.81 For the bot-tom one-quarter of wage earners in the private sector, sick days are the exception rather than the rule: 69 percent of these workers go without.82

Paid sick days have even been shown to reduce business costs, providing savings due to increased worker productivity, lower turnover rates, decreased workplace contagion, and fewer workplace injuries.83 Guaranteeing paid sick days will help low-wage workers maintain job security while leveling the playing field between low- and higher-wage workers.

Guarantee workers paid family and medical leave

Access to paid family and medical leave would allow retail workers to be with their newborn children during the crucial first stages of their children’s lives, to care for an aging parent or spouse, or to recover from their own illnesses. Unfortunately, this key economic security benefit is also among the rarest: Only 12 percent of private-sector workers have access to paid family and medical leave through their employers.84 As the only country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that does not guarantee some form of paid parental leave to new parents, the United States is an outlier.85 Similarly, the United States does not guarantee paid family and medical leave that would allow someone to take time off to help themselves or a family member recover from a serious illness—a position that is also unique among developed coun-tries.86 While four U.S. states—California, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island—have established programs that guarantee workers paid family and medical leave, a national policy providing it would guarantee that all workers have access during crucial moments in their lives.87

Ensure fair scheduling practices

Retail companies’ scheduling practices significantly affect the economic security of their workers. Without predictable schedules that allow workers some flex-ibility, retail workers cannot ably balance the demands of work and family life. On-call schedules that give workers little notice before requiring them to work can have significant consequences for workers juggling multiple jobs, child care, or continuing education. Unpredictable schedules are especially challenging for

Only 47 percent of

private-sector retail

workers can take a

day off to recover

from an illness or to

care for a sick child

without losing pay.

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working parents, and single mothers in particular, whose child care arrangements can be complex.88 Policies that set standards for stability and flexibility in workers’ schedules would help workers balance the demands of work and family life.

Stop gender pay discrimination in the workplace

On average, women earn 79 cents for every $1 men earn,89 and the gender gap in retail is even starker: Among full-time retail salespeople, women earn just 68 cents for every $1 that men earn.90 Additionally, more than 1.3 million women working in the retail industry live in or near poverty, and one in five women retail workers is her fam-ily’s sole breadwinner.91 Considering that women are overrepresented in minimum wage jobs—they make up nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers—closing the gender pay gap at retail companies and increasing the minimum wage are especially important for improving economic security for workers and their families.92

While paying women and men differently for equal work is prohibited under fed-eral law, the gender wage gap persists for a variety of reasons, including due to the concentration of women workers in occupations that tend to pay less generously but also due to discrimination.93 In addition to a lack of key worker economic security policies such as paid family and medical leave and fair scheduling prac-tices, there are not enough clear legal remedies to gender discrimination. In par-ticular, making worker pay more transparent and requiring employers to disclose employees’ pay would enable workers to identify clearly where women are being paid less than men for equal work.94

Strengthen Security and Exchange Commission disclosure requirements

The limited availability of wage and benefit information for retail employees underscores the need for strengthened disclosure requirements in retail compa-nies’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, just as they are needed for companies’ SEC filings in other industries. Publicly traded companies are required to submit key financial information about their financial performance and corporate operations to the SEC, including how much top executives are paid, which investors use to make informed decisions about a company’s financial health. However, companies are not required to provide detailed information on wages and benefits offered to nonexecutive employees.

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The SEC took an important step forward in 2015 by implementing a component of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which requires companies to disclose the ratio of pay between a typical worker and the company’s CEO.95 However, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio does not provide a complete picture of workers’ economic standing, and it should be supplemented with information that better details the basic level of economic security that each company guarantees to its workers.

Increased transparency concerning the wages and benefits that retailers and other companies offer to their employees will give investors more clarity about a company’s long-term investment in its workers and give policymakers a better understanding of the economic conditions of low-wage workers. As evinced by the companies profiled in this report, many corporations recognize the long-term benefits of investing in their workers by providing them with strong wages and benefits; consequently, prospective investors concerned with the long-term per-formance of a company should have access to this information as well.

Help workers bargain for a better deal

The evidence is clear: Unions give workers the voice they need to advocate for more economic security. In 2011, workers in union jobs made 13.6 percent more than workers in nonunion jobs.96 This disparity was even starker when comparing unionized low-wage workers with nonunionized low-wage workers, a category likely to include significant numbers of retail employees. Among workers in the 20th income decile, those in unionized jobs earned a full 18.9 percent more than their counterparts in nonunionized jobs.97 Unionized private-sector workers were also 9 percent more likely to have paid sick days as a benefit.98

Unionization not only allows workers to bargain for a better deal in the present, but unions also help workers ensure a better future for their families. A 2015 CAP report found a strong relationship between union membership and inter-generational economic mobility. According to the report, a 10 percentage point increase in a geographic area’s union membership is associated with low-income children ranking 1.3 percentile points higher in the national income distribution as adults.99 Also, the children of noncollege-educated fathers earn 28 percent more annually as adults if their father was in a labor union.100 Conversely, the recent decline in unionization has been associated with the increasing share of income

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going to high-income earners in developed countries.101 Enabling workers to unionize will help spread the benefits of corporate profit growth among the work-ers who drive that growth for their employers.

Unionization is a contentious issue for major retailers—even retailers that recently have taken positive steps toward improving their workers’ economic secu-rity. Wal-Mart’s anti-union activities are well-known and extensively documented; leaked employee training materials, for example, reveal an extensive effort to dis-suade Wal-Mart associates from forming unions. Labor officials and experts have refuted many of the claims the company makes in these training materials, includ-ing assertions that Wal-Mart makes about the extensiveness of the benefits it offers and about the function and purpose of union groups.102 In November 2015, Ikea workers at the Stoughton, Massachusetts, store’s Goods Flow In department asked the company to voluntarily recognize a union after a majority of its workers dem-onstrated interest in unionization; the department’s workers went on strike when Ikea opted not to recognize the union before a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.103

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Conclusion

Large retailers’ moves to strengthen wages and benefits will improve economic security for employees. Recent actions taken by Ikea, Costco, Gap, and others will result in significant gains to their workers’ economic security. While the compa-nies taking action represent a small group of those surveyed, their actions show that broader momentum among retailers is catching up with the economic reali-ties facing their workers. Still, the lack of transparency regarding most retailers’ wage and benefit practices makes it impossible to determine what, amid booming corporate profits and soaring executive pay, these companies are doing to ensure that their workers are economically secure. Ultimately, smart measures—such as raising the minimum wage, requiring employers to provide paid sick days and paid family and medical leave, ensuring fair scheduling practices, guaranteeing that men and women are paid equally for equal work, and protecting workers’ rights to bargain collectively—are the smartest ways for policymakers to ensure that retail-ers’ gains are shared equitably with workers.

For those retailers that have pledged to take action in support of increased worker wages and improved worker benefits, it will be crucial to assess their progress in achieving their stated wage and benefit targets on the timelines they provide.

Additionally, we encourage companies that declined to respond to this survey to provide information to CAP Action/ThinkProgress that demonstrates what steps they are taking in support of their workers’ economic security. Doing so would create momentum in support of workers while countering the secrecy shrouding retailers’ current wage and benefit practices. The limited information on wages and benefits made available from major retailers likely stems from a desire to keep this information under the radar. This is why putting the right policies in place and strengthening workers’ voices is critical in getting retail workers a better deal.

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About the author

Ryan Erickson is the Associate Director of Economic Campaigns at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Before joining CAP Action, Erickson developed strategy and conducted research for Everytown for Gun Safety’s electoral cam-paigns. Prior to that, he was the special assistant to the chief advisor for policy and strategic planning to former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), where he focused on the mayor’s national policy initiatives.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks are owed to the current and former Center for American Progress Action Fund staff members who assisted in the research and review of this report, including Brendan Duke, Karla Walter, Andy Green, Kate Bahn, Jocelyn Frye, Shilpa Phadke, Rachel West, and Praveen Madhiraju. Thanks especially to Sarah Jane Glynn, whose guidance for this report was invaluable; to Molly Cain for pro-viding key pieces of research used in this report; to Kristen Ellingboe and former intern Tim Hegedus, whose help was instrumental in gathering and checking research; and to Igor Volsky, Angie Kelly, Charles Posner, and Matt Dhaiti for their feedback and assistance at various points during the project.

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Endnotes

1 Jenny Che, “13 Companies That Aren’t Waiting For Congress To Raise The Minimum Wage,” HuffPost Business, April 2, 2015, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/companies-minimum-wage_n_6991672.html.

2 Federal Reserve Economic Database, “Corporate Profits After Tax (without IVA and CCAdj),” available at https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CP (last accessed April 2016).

3 Federal Reserve Economic Database, “Corporate profits before tax: Domestic industries: Retail trade,” available at https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/N3039C0A144NBEA (last accessed April 2016).

4 Michael Madowitz, “New Numbers but Same Story: Economy Growing but Wages Flat,” Center for American Progress, February 2, 2015, available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2015/02/02/105731/new-numbers-but-same-story-economy-growing-but-wages-flat/.

5 Anne D’Innocenzio, “Wal-Mart to give pay raises to most of its workers,” Associated Press, January 20, 2016, available at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3b80f41702ee416abbbed666297c3a03/wal-mart-give-pay-raises-most-its-workers; Nathan Layne, “Wal-Mart says staff turnover down after hike in minimum pay,” Reuters, June 5, 2015, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wal-mart-stores-shareholders-staff-idUSKBN0OL2IL20150605; Lydia DePillis, “Gap is finding out whether boosting the minimum wage really boosts business,” Wonkblog, March 31, 2015, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/31/higher-wages-boosted-gaps-applicant-pool-will-it-do-the-same-for-productivity/.

6 Ikea, “IKEA US once again raises its minimum hourly wages,” Press release, June 24, 2015, available at http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/062415_minimum_hourly_wage_increase.

7 Zeynep Ton, “Why ‘Good Jobs’ Are Good for Retailers,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 2012, avail-able at https://hbr.org/2012/01/why-good-jobs-are-good-for-retailers.

8 David Harrison, “U.S. Wages Show Signs of Breaking Out,” The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2015, avail-able at http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-productivity-rises-2-2-in-third-quarter-1449063206; Eric Morath, “Wal-Mart’s Raises Reflect Tighter Jobs Market,” The Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2015, available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/tighter-labor-market-helped-to-drive-wal-mart-wage-rise-1424383918; Paul Ziobro, “Target to Increase Wages to At Least $9/Hour for All Workers in April,” The Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2015, available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/target-to-increase-wages-to-minimum-9-hour-for-all-workers-in-april-1426709296.

9 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 1.2 Employment by detailed occupation, 2014 and projected 2024,” avail-able at http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm (last accessed May 2016).

10 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “May 2015 National Occupa-tional Employment and Wage Estimates United States,” available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm (last accessed May 2016). Cashiers are selected for focus here because they generally earn less than retail salespeople overall, and the intent of this report is to come as close as possible to establishing wage floors among major retail companies.

11 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2015 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2016), available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/mini-mum-wage/2015/home.htm.

12 The Fortune 500 represents the largest U.S. companies by annual revenue in 2015; to make the Fortune 500, companies must be incorporated in and operate in the United States. For more information on the Fortune 500, see Fortune, “Fortune 500” (2015), available at http://fortune.com/fortune500/.

13 Some companies listed on the 2015 Fortune 500 list are owned by a foreign or private parent; those companies were excluded from this analysis. The only company profiled in this company that is not on the Fortune 500 is Ikea, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. Ikea was contacted through a separate process and was included in the survey because of its status as a major retailer operating in the United States and also because of the company’s previous, well-publicized wage increases.

14 Dave Jamieson, “Ikea’s Minimum Wage Hike Was So Successful, It’s Raising Wages Again,” The Huffing-ton Post, July 24, 2015, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/ikea-minimum-wage_n_7648804.html.

15 PayScale and Glassdoor list a significant amount of information on worker salary and benefit data, provid-ing a way to estimate employee compensation through wage and benefit data submitted by employees or former employees of specific companies. However, the nature of their data collection processes does not allow users to easily identify and verify wage and benefit floors at specific companies. A scan of jobs at Wal-Mart using Payscale, for instance, shows a number of jobs that pay below Wal-Mart’s company wage floor, and some companies even show jobs paying below the federal minimum wage. With the information available publicly through these sites, it was difficult to arrive at a reliable estimate of company wage floors. For instance, see this section on hourly rates by position at Wal-Mart stores: PayScale, “Hourly Rate by Job for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc Employees,” available at http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Wal-Mart_Stores,_Inc/Hourly_Rate/by_Job (last accessed June 2016).

16 The Center for American Progress Action Fund under-took a detailed search, seeking corporate or media sources to confirm a company’s individual wage and benefit floors. Conversations with other researchers in this space also confirmed that these data are not widely available publicly. Even in some cases where compa-nies suggested they would increase retail workers’ pay, they did not appear to provide specific target wage floors. See Bed Bath & Beyond, “Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Reports Results For Fiscal 2014 Fourth Quarter And Full Year,” Press release, April 8, 2015, available at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97860&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2033289; Akin Oyedele, “Higher wages are here and there’s nothing corporate America can do to stop it,” Business Insider, May 23, 2015, available at http://www.businessinsider.com/ross-stores-wage-growth-2015-5. We invite and encourage retailers to share the most up-to-date information on wage and benefit floors, as this was the purpose of the survey.

17 Retail Industry Leaders Association, “Who is RILA?”, available at http://www.rila.org/about/Pages/default.aspx (last accessed May 2016).

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18 Retail Industry Leaders Association, “Retail Membership Kit,” available at http://www.rila.org/about/JoinRILA/Documents/Retail%20Membership%20Kit.pdf (last accessed April 2016).

19 Some companies surveyed may offer employees paid family and medical leave in certain instances, such as the birth of a child, through disability insurance programs. Companies may require their employees to pay into these programs, meaning that the benefit is not free to employees. Paying into a disability insurance program may be difficult for employees who cannot afford to lose the wages required for participating in these leave programs, meaning that paid disability leave may be out of reach for some retail workers. For this survey, where possible, we note which programs are classified as “disability” vs. other paid family and medical leave programs, but we received limited infor-mation on what employee contributions are required for disability programs at retail companies.

20 Ikea, “IKEA US Adopts New Minimum Hourly Wage Structure,” Press release, June 26, 2014, available at http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/IKEA-new-minimum-hourly-wage. For more on the Liv-ing Wage Calculator, see Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier, “Living Wage Calculator: Background,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, available at http://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/about (last accessed April 2016).

21 Ikea, “IKEA US Adopts New Minimum Hourly Wage Structure.”

22 Ikea, “IKEA US once again raises its minimum hourly wages”; David Jamieson, “Ikea’s Minimum Wage Hike Was So Successful, It’s Raising Wages Again,” The Huffington Post, June 24, 2015, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/ikea-minimum-wage_n_7648804.html.

23 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Ikea. Response from Carolyn Bell, U.S. public affairs manager, Ikea, February 26, 2016.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 CAP Action/ThinkProgress personal communication from Carolyn Bell, U.S. public affairs manager, Ikea, March 22, 2016.

27 Heather Boushey and Sarah Jane Glynn, “There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2012), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2012/11/16/44464/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/.

28 Costco initially answered that its wage floor was $11.50 per hour but indicated that it soon would be raising wages. The company announced the increase to $13 per hour on March 3, 2016. See Shannon Pettypiece, “Costco Will Raise Minimum Wage as Competition for Workers Grows,” Bloomberg, March 3, 2016, available at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-03/costco-raising-minimum-wage-as-competition-for-workers-grows.

29 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Costco. Response from Pat Callans, senior vice president of human resources and risk management, Costco Wholesale, February 9, 2016.

30 Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Sur-vey (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015), Table 16, available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2015/owner-ship/private/table16a.pdf.

31 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Costco; Liz Ben-Ishai, “The Schedules that Work Act” (Washington: Center for Law and Social Policy, 2014), available at http://www.clasp.org/resources-and-publications/publication-1/Tackling-Unstable-and-Unpredictable-Work-Schedules-3-7-2014-FINAL-1.pdf. The Center for Law and Social Policy study says that Costco provides two weeks’ advance notice to part-time employees and guarantees a number of minimum hours for part time-employees during the week; however, the survey returned by Costco indicates that schedules are set one week in advance. It may be that Costco offers more ad-vance notice to part-time employees than to full-time employees, but this distinction is not clarified.

32 seeprogress, “Creating Long-Term Value: Panel 1 ‘Economic Trends & Shared Prosperity’: Interview with James Sinegal and others,” YouTube, October 23, 2015, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRQgAKxlTk.

33 Ibid.

34 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Gap Inc. Response from Laura Wilkinson, senior manager, public affairs and communications, Gap Inc., February 12, 2016.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.; Gap Inc., “Full-Time and Part-Time Employee Benefits,” available at http://www.gapinc.com/content/gapinc/html/careers/lifeatgap/benefits.html (last ac-cessed April 2016).

37 Exponential Talent LLC, “Gap Inc. Pay Equity by Gender Project,” available at http://www.exponentialtalent.com/gap-inc-pay-equity-by-gender-project.html (last accessed May 2016).

38 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Target. Response from Molly Snyder, director, communications, Target, February 17, 2016.

39 Nandita Bose, “Exclusive: Target increases minimum wage to $10 an hour - sources,” Reuters, April 18, 2016, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-target-wages-exclusive-idUSKCN0XF2L4. For $9 increase in 2015, see Hiroko Tabuchi, “Target Plans to Raise Pay to at Least $9 an Hour,” The New York Times, March 18, 2015, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/business/target-plans-to-raise-pay-to-at-least-9-an-hour.html.

40 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Target.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 City and County of San Francisco Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, “Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinances,” available at http://sfgov.org/olse/formula-retail-employee-rights-ordinances (last ac-cessed June 2016).

45 CAP Action/ThinkProgress survey of Target.

46 Wal-Mart, “Walmart to Increase Wages for Current U.S. Workers to $10 an Hour or Higher, Launches New Skills-Based Training for Associates” (2015), available at http://cdn.corporate.walmart.com/a1/0e/6fec066e4cf48b9ec4b9f09bcd67/associate-opportunity-fact-sheet.2.pdf.

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47 Wal-Mart, “More Than One Million Walmart Associates to Receive Pay Increase in 2016,” Press release, January 20, 2016, available at http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/01/20/more-than-one-million-walmart-associates-receive-pay-increase-in-2016.

48 Ibid.

49 DePillis, “Walmart is rolling out big changes to worker schedules this year.”

50 Paul Ziobro, “Wal-Mart to End One-Day Wait for Sick Pay,” The Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2015, available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-end-one-day-wait-for-sick-pay-1424466584.

51 Walmart, “More Than One Million Walmart Associates to Receive Pay Increase in 2016.”

52 The TJX Companies Inc., “The TJX Companies, Inc. Reports Above-Plan Q4 FY15 EPS Growth of 15% and Full Year FY15 Adjusted EPS Growth of 12%,” Press release, February 25, 2015, available at http://investor.tjx.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118215&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2019927.

53 Ibid.

54 The TJX Companies Inc., “Job Benefits,” available at http://www.tjxjobs.com/benefits.asp (last accessed April 2016).

55 Michael Virtanen, “Urban Outfitters to end on-call scheduling in New York,” The Big Story, October 7, 2015, available at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f325818f-8dae475c88e369a3a924736d/urban-outfitters-end-call-scheduling-new-york.

56 Che, “13 Companies That Aren’t Waiting For Congress To Raise The Minimum Wage.” The Albany Business Review notes in an article that every job “starts at no less than $11 per hour,” but this may refer only to one specific store in the Albany suburbs. See Michael DeMasi, “No minimum wage jobs at new Whole Foods Market (Vid-eo),” Albany Business Review, April 15, 2014, available at http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2014/04/15/no-minimum-wage-jobs-at-new-whole-foods-market.html.

57 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Sched-ule 14A: Whole Foods Market, Inc.” (2016), avail-able at http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/865436/000120677416004185/wholefoods_de-f14a.htm#execcom; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Oc-cupational Employment and Wages, May 2015, 41-2031 Retail Salespersons,” available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes412031.htm (last accessed June 2016).

58 Kim Peterson, “At Whole Foods, paychecks are public,” CBS MoneyWatch, March 5, 2014, available at http://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-whole-foods-paychecks-are-public/.

59 Whole Foods Market, “About Our Benefits,” available at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/about-our-benefits (last accessed April 2016).

60 Nick Turner, “Ross Stores Joins Wal-Mart and T.J. Maxx in $9-an-Hour Club,” Bloomberg, May 22, 2015, available at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-22/ross-stores-joins-wal-mart-and-t-j-maxx-in-the-9-an-hour-club.

61 Myles Upland, “We just got another sign that wage growth is here,” Business Insider, April 9, 2015, available at http://www.businessinsider.com/bed-bath-and-beyond-signals-wage-increases-2015-4.

62 Bryce Covert, “Dollar General Invests In Workers Through More Hours To Compete With Walmart,” ThinkProgress, March 13, 2015, available at http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/03/13/3633587/dollar-general-hours/.

63 Workers in this category receive assistance directly for themselves or through a family member. See David Cooper, “Balancing paychecks and public assistance” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2016), available at http://www.epi.org/publication/wages-and-trans-fers/.

64 Ibid.

65 Americans for Tax Fairness, “Walmart on Tax Day: How Taxpayers Subsidize America’s Biggest Employer and Richest Family” (2014), available at http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/files/Walmart-on-Tax-Day-Americans-for-Tax-Fairness-1.pdf.

66 Based on analysis of filings available through the Se-curities and Exchange Commission. Each year, publicly traded companies must file a Form DEF 14A, or a “De-finitive Proxy Statement,” which includes compensation information for each of the company’s five most highly compensated officers. CAP Action analyzed Form DEF 14A for each retail Fortune 500 company between 2009 and 2015, if available, and reported those compensa-tion figures accordingly. Companies’ Form DEF 14A filings are available through the SEC database EDGAR. See U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “EDGAR: Search Tools,” available at https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm (last accessed May 2016). Growth in hourly wages for average cashiers is taken from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2015, 41-2031 Retail Salespersons,” available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes412031.htm (last accessed June 2016); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2009, 41-2031 Retail Salespersons,” available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm (last accessed June 2016).

67 Author’s analysis comparing the average rate of growth in compensation for the most highly compensated ex-ecutive at each named company with the growth of the federal minimum wage, which has not increased since 2009, and the growth in wages for average cashiers according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. See U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2015, 41-2031 Retail Salespersons.”

68 Ibid.; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2009, 41-2031 Retail Salespersons.”

69 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Federal Pov-erty Level (FPL),” available at https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-FPL/ (last accessed April 2016).

70 Mark Greenberg, “It’s Time for a Better Poverty Measure” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2009), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/report/2009/08/25/6582/its-time-for-a-better-poverty-measure/; Insight Center for Community Economic Development, “Beyond Poverty: Why the Federal Poverty Level is Insufficient,” YouTube, April 29, 2015, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EYzEo5hLYk.

71 Glasmeier, “Living Wage Calculator: Background.”

27 Center for American Progress Action Fund | Inequality for Sale

72 Yearly earnings are estimated for a worker who works 40 hours per week and takes no unpaid time off at any point during 52 weeks, while earning the federal minimum wage: $7.25 * 40 hours * 52 weeks = $15,080. According to the Living Wage Calculator, Oklahoma is the lowest-cost-of-living state that also does not have a state minimum wage exceeding the national minimum of $7.25. For Living Wage Calculator data on Oklahoma, see Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Living Wage Calculation for Oklahoma,” available at http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/40 (last accessed June 2016). For the minimum wage in Oklahoma, see National Con-ference of State Legislatures, “State Minimum Wages” (2016), available at http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx.

73 National Low Income Housing Coalition, “Out of Reach 2016: Oklahoma” (2016), available at http://nlihc.org/oor/oklahoma.

74 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Living Wage Calculation for Virginia,” available at http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/51 (last accessed June 2016). For the minimum wage in Virginia, see National Conference of State Legislatures, “State Minimum Wages.”

75 National Low Income Housing Coalition, “Out of Reach 2016: Virginia” (2016), available at http://nlihc.org/oor/virginia.

76 David Cooper, “Raising the Minimum Wage to $12 by 2020 Would Lift Wages for 35 Million American Work-ers” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2015), available at http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-minimum-wage-to-12-by-2020-would-lift-wages-for-35-million-american-workers/.

77 Ibid.

78 Fight for $15, “About Us,” available at http://fightfor15.org/about-us/ (last accessed April 2016).

79 Steven Greenhouse and Jana Kasperkevic, “Fight for $15 swells into largest protest by low-wage workers in US history,” The Guardian, April 15, 2015, available at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/15/fight-for-15-minimum-wage-protests-new-york-los-angeles-atlanta-boston; Michael R. Blood and Don Thompson, “California, New York enact US-highest $15 minimum wages,” The Big Story, April 5, 2016, available at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/98cddb672d82427cb910b98c77fd1c4a/california-governor-set-approve-highest-minimum-wage.

80 Overall percentage: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Em-ployee Benefits in the United States–March 2015,” Press release, July 24 2015, available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ebs2.pdf. Black workers: National Partnership for Women & Families, “African American Workers and Their Families Need Paid Sick Days” (2013), available at http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/work-family/psd/african-american-workers-need-paid-sick-days.pdf. Latino workers: National Partnership for Women & Families, “Latinos and Paid Sick Days: The Case for the Healthy Families Act,” available at http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/work-family/psd/latinos-and-paid-sick-days-case-for-healthy-families-act.pdf (last accessed May 2016).

81 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Pay protection during temporary absences from work: what we know and what we don’t know,” Monthly Labor Review (2015): 1–15, available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/pdf/pay-protection-during-temporary-absenc-es-from-work.pdf.

82 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employee Benefits in the United States–March 2015.”

83 National Partnership for Women & Families, “Paid Sick Days Lead to Cost Savings for All” (2015), available at http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/work-family/psd/paid-sick-days-lead-to-cost-savings-savings-for-all.pdf.

84 U.S. Department of Labor, DOL Factsheet: Paid Family and Medical Leave (2015), available at http://www.dol.gov/wb/PaidLeave/pdf/PaidLeave.pdf.

85 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develop-ment, “Key characteristics of parental leave systems” (2016), available at http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems.pdf.

86 Jody Heymann and others, “Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries” (Washington: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2009), available at http://cepr.net/documents/publica-tions/paid-sick-days-2009-05.pdf.

87 Sarah Jane Glynn, “Administering Paid Family and Medical Leave” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2015), available at https://www.american-progress.org/issues/labor/report/2015/11/19/125769/administering-paid-family-and-medical-leave/. For New York, see Emily Peck, “New York Just Passed America’s Best Paid Family Leave Law,” The Huff-ington Post, April 4, 2016, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-paid-family-leave_us_5702ae75e4b0daf53af042b7.

88 Julie Vogtman and Karen Schulman, “Set Up To Fail: When Low-Wage Work Jeopardizes Parents’ and Children’s Success” (Washington: National Women’s Law Center, 2016), available at http://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/FINAL-Set-Up-To-Fail-When-Low-Wage-Work-Jeopardizes-Parents’-and-Children’s-Success.pdf.

89 Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Bernadette D. Proctor, “In-come and Poverty in the United States: 2014” (Suitland, MD: Bureau of the Census, 2015), available at https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publica-tions/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf.

90 Catherine Ruetschlin and Robert Hiltonsmith, “Mak-ing Retail Jobs Good for Women” (New York: Demos, 2015), available at http://www.demos.org/publication/making-retail-jobs-good-jobs-women.

91 Ibid.

92 National Women’s Law Center, “Fair Pay for Women Requires a Fair Minimum Wage” (2015), available at http://nwlc.org/resources/fair-pay-women-requires-fair-minimum-wage/.

93 Jocelyn Frye, “Next Steps for Progress on Equal Pay” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2016), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2016/04/12/135267/next-steps-for-progress-on-equal-pay/.

94 Ibid.

95 Victoria McGrane and Joann S. Lublin, “SEC Approval of Pay-Gap Rule Sparks Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2015, available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-set-to-approve-final-ceo-pay-ratio-rule-1438783961.

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96 Economic Policy Institute, “The State of Working Amer-ica” (2012), available at http://stateofworkingamerica.org/chart/swa-wages-table-4-33-union-wage-premi-um/.

97 John Schmitt, “The Union Wage Advantage for Low-Wage Workers” (Washington: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2008), available at http://cepr.net/documents/publications/quantile_2008_05.pdf.

98 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Differences between union and nonunion compensation, 2001 – 2011 (U.S. Depart-ment of Labor, 2013), available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/04/art2full.pdf.

99 Richard Freeman and others, “Bargaining for the Ameri-can Dream” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2015), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2015/09/09/120558/bargain-ing-for-the-american-dream/.

100 Ibid.

101 Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron, “Power from the People” (Washington: International Monetary Fund, 2015), available at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2015/03/jaumotte.htm.

102 Steven Greenhouse, “How Walmart Persuades Its Workers Not to Unionize,” The Atlantic, June 8, 2015, available at http://www.theatlantic.com/business/ar-chive/2015/06/how-walmart-convinces-its-employees-not-to-unionize/395051/.

103 Katie Johnston, “Stoughton Ikea’s warehouse crew pickets over demand to unionize,” The Boston Globe, November 16, 2015, available at https://www.bos-tonglobe.com/business/2015/11/16/stoughton-ikea-workers-picket-over-unionization/CQwzATuiWjoU6z-Kq17ptaO/story.html.

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Our Mission

The Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.

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As progressives, we believe America should be a land of boundless opportunity, where people can climb the ladder of economic mobility. We believe we owe it to future generations to protect the planet and promote peace and shared global prosperity.

And we believe an effective government can earn the trust of the American people, champion the common good over narrow self-interest, and harness the strength of our diversity.

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We develop new policy ideas, challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter, and shape the national debate. With policy teams in major issue areas, The Center for American Progress Action Fund can think creatively at the cross-section of traditional boundaries to develop ideas for policymakers that lead to real change. By employing an extensive communications and outreach effort that we adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape, we move our ideas aggressively in the national policy debate.