Costco - Leading the Way in Living Wages

"They seem like they could be making so much more money if they paid their employees less and marked up products more" (participant in Costco discussion forum on Google Finance).

But they don't.

Costco's average pay is $17 per hour to employees, more than 40 percent higher than what Walmart pays its employees.  According to Jim Sinegal, the CEO of Costco, paying employees well results in less employee turnover, less employee theft, greater loyalty, and, more importantly, better service for the customer.

Paying employees fair wages in not simply a moral issue.  It is a good business decision.

Sources:

"Discussions for Cost Wholesale Corp." Google Finance.  7 Jul 2007.  http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.656865/browsethread/thread/104db04f725d2b9f

Greenhouse, Steven, "How Costco Became the Anti-WalMart."  NYTimes.com.  17 Jul 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/

business/yourmoney/17costco.html?pagewanted-1&r=1&adxnnl-1&adxnnix=1211036474-jBaBZwONnOiwT/iQuCi3DQ