Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen

There’s an interesting, if somewhat incomplete, piece on Wal-Mart in the New Yorker. I recall sometime back, the Singaporean business papers raving consistently about Wal-Mart and how companies should strive to be like them. Of course, at the time I was also reading material by folks who were less enthused about their shocking labour practices.  Reading this article made me also think of the current ministerial salary flap in Singapore.  I don’t get why Wal-Mart executives deserve to be paid several million bucks a year.  Sure, Wal-Mart may be making potloads in revenue, but that’s partly because a huge number of their employees are underpaid and denied the right to organise, and that Wal-Mart squeezes their suppliers unconscionably. Sounds familiar? Only a simpleton looks just at revenue in determining remuneration.  Also, I’m tickled to be in a state like New York which is willing to tell Wal-Mart to piss off.

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