Retail Chains Could Make Better Choices For Middle Class

The Powers-That- Be say the bulk of America’s middle- class manufacturing jobs are gone and aren’t coming back. High- tech jobs are being outsourced, as is an increasing share of the work historically handled by our accountants, lawyers, and some other professionals.

Retail jobs at brick-andmortar shops, however, can’t be exported.

But wait, those aren’t jobs, they’re “jobettes.” They’re part- time, pay poverty wages, offer no benefits, feature lousy schedules, come with little training, and boast few advancement opportunities.

Most big retail chains treat their employees as nothing but a drain on profits rather than an asset worth investing in. Sales people are typically paid only $10 an hour, clerks get only $ 9.70, and cashiers just $9.

Even worse, 94 percent of retailers define fulltime work as only 30 hours a week. People can’t make ends meet on that, and America can’t have a healthy economy with- out a solid middle class. However, 15 million Americans are in retail work now, and it’s to be our secondbiggest source of new jobs for the next decade.

Well, shrug the PowersThat-Be, retail giants must compete with low prices, so they have no choice but to keep cutting corners on their workforce.

But look at Trader Joe’s, where full- time jobs start at $ 40,000. Or at Costco, where retaining employees is a priority and 98 percent of managers are promoted from within.

Low- price chains that invest directly in workers are reaping industry highs in performance, morale, customer satisfaction, and profits.

Bad jobs are not a retail necessity or a competitive advantage — just a corporate choice.

A new initiative called the Retail Justice Alliance is encouraging U.S. employers and policymakers to turn retail jobs into good jobs that spread a middleclass standard of living and rebuild our grassroots economy. To learn more and join in, go to www. retailjusticealliance.org.