Normative Ethics: Utilitarianism and Deontology slp 1(walmart) - Essay Example

Normative Ethics: Utilitarianism and Deontology Wal Mart Presented By: Number: Supervisor: Number of Words: The company that I have selected for this is Wal –Mart. The major reason for this choice of company is because of the fact that Wal – Mart is the biggest retailer in the world and it stands at the first position in the Fortune 500 companies. After having understood about the company better, it is seen that Wal –Mart’s revenues are close to almost $378,799.00 million and a profit of almost $12,731.

00 million (CNN Money, 2008). The main aim of the company has always been to be the leaders in retailing. Wal – Mart has been able to achieve this position and has been able to keep up with the internal and external pressures of the business. Here I plan to discuss one of the issues that this large company faces. This is an issue with the employees where the employees feel that they are not being treated with the correctly and their needs are not being met by the company. Firstly it is important to understand that Wal – Mart has wide operations spread across 14 markets, 7390 Wal – Mart stores and they employee over 2 million associates.

It is the largest employer in America. The company has highlighted in its website about the importance that is provided to the employees. However in recent reports of Business Week the actual facts about the low pay to the employees has been highlighted and the company has been paying employees about $8.23 per hour, or $13,861 a year. This pay is well below the federal poverty line of $14, 630 for a family of three. Also as per a few other reports there has been a clear picture that the salaries that are paid to the employees is much below the poverty line and there have been a number of confessions from the employees themselves that the salaries earned by them is not enough for them to live, and most of the employees work an average of 40 hours a week.

One of the employees even mentioned that the pay received is so low that it suffices him only to stay in a Dodge truck (Greenhouse, 2005). Also reports have shown that the company does not provide enough breaks for the employees and that the company make people work through their breaks and provides for just half hour breaks in an eight hour shift. All these factors have caused a lot of issues within the company. The ethical issue here is that employees require to be very well taken care off.

Also since the employees work so hard to ensure that the company is doing well, this is not unfair as the minimum pay that the employees are eligible to get are not received and this causes issues for the living standards of the employees. After having understood the situation within the company it is safe to say that even though Wal – Mart is the biggest retailers in the world the company is absolutely wrong in this aspect and require to take action as soon as possible to ensure that the employees are given the correct salaries that they are actually due to get.

BibliographyCNN Money, 2008, ‘Fortune 500: Our Annual Ranking of America’s Largest Corporations’, 5 May 2008, Accessed on 21 January 2009, Retrieved fromhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/full_list/Greenhouse, S, 2005, ‘At Wal-Mart, Choosing Sides Over $9.68 an Hour’, Accessed on 21 January 2009, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/business/04wages.html