Reuters is reporting that Lee Scott, Walmart's former CEO who gave up his position at the begining of this year, spoke at the World Food Business Summit in New York and had some pretty interesting things to say. In response to questions about what he would have liked to acomplish as CEO, Scott was quoted as saying, "one place I would have liked to have done more is helping people understand that Wal-Mart jobs, retail jobs in general, are good jobs, they pay well and they offer extraordinary opportunities."

Apparently Scott hasn't talked with any actual average associates in a while. Most of the associates we talk to would rate their jobs as something vastly less than 'good'. Of course in this economy, or any economy, having a job is far better than not having a job, and it's great that Walmart employs so many people, but Walmart's jobs aren't about quality.

To start with, despite what Scott says, Walmart's jobs do not pay well. Walmart pays about 16% less than the average retail company, and the average Walmart employee will make under $20,000 a year. Does that sound like a well paid job to you? Second, Walmart offers inadequte benefits and health coverage. While Walmart claims that 94% of their employees have some kind of helath coverage, Walmart only covers 52% of their employees under thier own plan, failing to cover 675,000 employees. Walmart also covers far fewer employees than most the industry as a whole, which covers 65% of employees, which means a large portion of Walmart's employees must rely on Government assistance to cover their medical costs.

Add that to discrimination, cuts in hours, a schedule that can be changed to the drop of a hat, no overtime, and intimidation in the face of union organizing, and Walmart's jobs don't sound like "good jobs" at all. The saddest part about all of this, however, is that Walmart's jobs COULD be good. We've been pushing for high quality jobs at Walmart for years now, to no avail. One way Mr. Scott could have made headway in "helping people understand that Wal-Mart jobs... are good jobs" would have been to offer a living wage, affordable and adequate health coverage, quality benefits, and more respect in general to all of Walmart's associates.