Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart in 1962; the first store was opened in Rogers, Ark. Since 1962 Wal-Mart has grown to be the world's largest retailer more than 3,200 facilities in the United States and over 1,100 in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Part of their success in America is that Wal-Mart prides itself by focusing on the fact that it is an "all American" company that offers low prices to their customers. By the close of the 1990's Wal-Mart had become the nations number one retailer, had its eleventh stock split , ventured into Puerto Rico , Germany and Korea, was the number one largest, private owned employer in the United States. The turn of the Century Wal-mart was listed by Fortune Magazine as the third most admired company of America, in 2001, it was among the top 25 Diversity Recruitment Programs for its aggressive program to hire and promote Latinos, according to Hispanic Business Magazine. In 2002, Wal-Mart is ranked number one on the Fortune 500 listing. Wal- Mart is now the world's biggest corporation, it makes 200 billion dollar an year, and part of those saving are realized through the lower wages and lack of employee benefit. A research found about 25,000 workers at Wal-Mart stores found thousands of labour violations, including minors working during school hours and workers not taking breaks or lunches. The average turnover rate in each store is above 50% a year, with many stores having to replace 100% of their employees each year, and some reaching as high as a 300% turnover. Wal - Mart is challenging a big issue of unfair labour practices.
The average employee in Wal- Mart makes only $15,000 a year for full-time work, which is 7 to 8 dollar per hour, a subcontracted janitor might earn about 6 dollar per hour. US government arrest 250 undocumented immigrants working as cleaners for Wal- Mart contractors at 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states.
