[Boston-editorial] Wal-Mart's Wealth Gap in Shareholders' Spotlight

[Betsy Leondar-Wright]

PRESS RELEASE FROM RESPONSIBLE WEALTH
For immediate release - May 24, 2005
Contact: Betsy Leondar-Wright, (617) 423-2148 x113
 
SHAREHOLDERS SPOTLIGHT WAL-MART'S WEALTH GAP
 
MARTHA BURK TO CHALLENGE GENDER & RACE BIAS IN OPTIONS
 
BOSTON - At the Wal-Mart annual meeting on June 3 in Fayetteville, Arkansas,
Wal-Mart shareholder and women's advocate Martha Burk will introduce a
resolution about the company's disparities in stock option grants.
 
Dr. Burk is known for leading the effort to open the Augusta National Golf
Club to women and is chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations
(NCWO).
 
The resolution, filed by members of Responsible Wealth (RW), asks Wal-Mart
to report on the distribution by gender and race of stock options and
restricted stock awards. A similar resolution last year won 13.6 percent of
the votes, an unusually positive result for a first-time resolution at a
company with a lot of family-owned stock.
 
According to the 2005 proxy statement, Wal-Mart distributed over 18 million
options to employees in 2004, with 4.8 percent going to the five highest
paid officers, who are 0.00038 percent of the company's employees. All five
are white men.
 
Margaret Covert, Shareholder Action Coordinator of NorthStar Asset
Management in Boston, lead filer of the proposal on behalf of clients who
are RW members, said, "Our resolution poses this question: does Wal-Mart
widen the American wealth gap? With low wages and benefits, widespread
violations of labor law, aggressive pressure on suppliers, and
unprecedented, vast wealth in the hands of the founders' heirs, Wal-Mart is
changing the landscape of business in the U.S."
 
Wal-Mart is the biggest private employer in the U.S. with over 1.3 million
employees. Its profits are up by more than 13% over 2004.
 
Wal-Mart is facing the largest gender discrimination suits in history,
potentially representing 1.6 million former and current women employees. The
suit alleges that women were paid about 5% less than men doing similar jobs.
 
"Wal-Mart's ads feature seemingly prosperous people of color. Yet in many
places around the United States, it is communities of color that have
successfully organized to keep Wal-Mart out, insisting on good jobs with
health benefits, not poverty jobs," said Scott Klinger, co-director of
Responsible Wealth. "We're asking Wal-Mart to prove its assertion that it's
a good employer for women and people of color by showing us where the
company's wealth is going."
 
He added that tens of thousands of Wal-Mart employees receive Medicaid
benefits, more than any other company.
 
Martha Burk said, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant. The courageous women
of Wal-Mart exposed blatant discrimination in pay and promotions that the
company was hiding. This resolution shines more light on the skewed
distribution of the great wealth created by the work of all Wal-Mart's
employees."
 
As NCWO Chair, Dr. Burk leads a network of over 200 national women's groups,
collectively representing ten million women. Burk is the author of Cult of
Power: Sex Discrimination in Corporate America and What Can Be Done About It
(Scribner, 2005). A political psychologist and women's equity expert, she is
President of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy.
 
Since Dr. Burk led the NCWO effort that opened the Augusta National Golf
Club to women. NCWO (http://www.womensorganizations.org) is currently
targeting Citibank's Smith Barney, IBM, SBC Communications and Exxon Mobil.
 
Responsible Wealth also filed a resolution this year with Wells Fargo, in
which they seek to link CEO pay with predatory lending practices.
 
Responsible Wealth (http://www.responsiblewealth.org) is a national network
of affluent Americans who are concerned about deepening economic inequality
and advocate widespread prosperity.
            
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