Description

How Americas biggest company began taking better care of its workersand why such efforts will never be enough

Fifteen years ago Walmart was the most controversial company in America By offering incredibly low prices it had come to dominate the retail landscape But with this dominance came a suite of ethical concerns Walmart was accused of wiping out of momandpop businesses across the country ruthlessly pressuring suppliers to cut costs even if it meant closing up US factories and moving production overseas and above all not taking adequate care of its own employees who were paid so little that many wound up on public assistance

Today while Walmart remains Americas largest employer the picture is very different It has become an environmental leader among businesses and has taken many other steps to use its immense scale to have a positive social impact Most notably its starting wage has risen from 725 to 12 and employee benefits have improved With internal and external threats to its business looming the company began to change directions in 2005a transformation that accelerated in 2014 with the arrival of CEO Doug McMillon By undertaking such largescale change without a legal mandate to do so Walmart has joined a number of major corporations that say they are dedicated to practicing a new socially conscious form of capitalism

InStill Broke awardwinning author Rick Wartzman goes inside the companys transformation showing in novelistic detail how the company has gotten to where it is Yet he also asks a critical question is it enough With a stillsimmering public debate around the minimum wage and widespread movements by workers demanding better treatment how far will 12 an hour go in todays economy Or even 15 Or Walmarts average wage which now hovers above 17but even so doesnt pencil out to so much as 32000 a year for a fulltime worker

In the richest nation on earth how did the bar get set so low How did America find itself relying on an army of lowwage workers without ever acknowledging their most basic needs And if Walmarts brand of change is the best we have how can we ever expect to build a healthy society

With unparalleled access to the key executives and changemakers at WalmartStill Brokedoes more than document a remarkable business makeover It interrogates the role of business in American life and asks what the future of our economy and country can beand whose job it is to make it