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Fair Pay at Lee Valley - Pretty Impressive

I'm delighted to read this. I knew Costco had fair pay for their workers, too. I would shop less at Walmart, because of their labour practises, except that the two department stores closest to me are both Walmarts. It's a much longer drive to a different one.
 
Roger Tulk said:
I'm delighted to read this. I knew Costco had fair pay for their workers, too. I would shop less at Walmart, because of their labour practises, except that the two department stores closest to me are both Walmarts. It's a much longer drive to a different one.
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Come on, Roger, St. Catharines isn't that big -- I grew up there. ;) Costco is pretty close to one of those Walmarts. It's true that I can't really think of any other department stores , though I think there is a big box area out by Fourth + Louth.

And to get back on topic (Sorry!) I also read this and am delighted by it. I wish there were more family run businesses out there like LVT. Actually there are tons of family - run businesses, but I doubt that many of them manage to grow to that size?
 
Very interesting and nice for that private company. He makes less than $200,000 per year but he also owns the company.

For public companies - I'll stop here because this is a respectable forum.
 
OK, I'll say it. If I had a 100 million dollar company I'd pay my employees the top wages, pay their medical, and treat their families very well.
But after working my butt off starting and running a super successful business I'd pay myself a bit more than 200K and drive a nicer car than my secretary.:)
 
Bob Gibson said:
OK, I'll say it. If I had a 100 million dollar company I'd pay my employees the top wages, pay their medical, and treat their families very well.
But after working my butt off starting and running a super successful business I'd pay myself a bit more than 200K and drive a nicer car than my secretary.:)
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Why? If you are happy and comfortable...hard work is part of life. If you prefer, not you personally Bob, there is welfare, food stamps, so on. I think it says a lot for a man to drive a good car, live in a good home, treat good people well and make a good living. We all should learn to live well on a little less and give a little more.
 
This article takes me back to two doctors i had personal dealings with in SA.
Both were orthopedic specialist surgeons.
So first guy gets to "fix" my broken leg (result of motorcycle accident). Were i living in the US i would have sued him and for really good reason. This guys total focus was his 85 ton fishing boat at the coast, his weekly flight booked to go down there each week and his different color for each day of the week Mercedes Benz.
When the "benefit plan" my Dad was on at the time, had an internal fraud case on the go and ceased payments across the board for 60 days to get to the bottom of things, he called me in and told me that i should tell my parents if the bills are not paid then it would affect the doctor patient treatment and relationship. At this time my leg was already a mess and he was looking for a way out.

Then he sent me to the new guy. He was a completely different character. Was in the wards doing rounds till 10pm each day. Drove a 10 year old Toyota Corolla and told people to pay when they can. But he guaranteed me he would fix my leg in 6 weeks. Which he did. He also never sent a swab to only one laboratory for a test. Had all the time in the world for patients, showed you what was going on in Xrays and made a huge contribution to medical science in that he developed one of the few solutions available to treating bone sepsis down to working with the medical device manufacturers etc to have specific bits and pieces made for the purpose.

I wonder who had the most rewarding life when they sit back at 80 and examine their contribution to the planet.

Mr Lee has left a special mark and in many more ways than one can imagine. The mere fact that this article has seen the light of day is providing food for thought that perhaps there is more than one way to behave and it dont have to be like the Wallstreet boys with winner takes all.

They are as close as i have seen as one of the most perfect companies I have come across.

The other day i received a shipment from them when i took advantage of their "free shipping special" recently. What shocked me in a really good way was the invoice. At the bottom it had a self adhesive addresses return label with postage prepaid on it. I have yet to come across a single other vendor online that has done anything close to this. I checked with a US person who shops LV as i do and found they did the same in the US.

Now think about it. They sell stuff that works. Even their gadgetry. Then if you really not happy with your purchase and have buyers remorse they wont be happy either and make it easy for you to send it back heck they paying for you to be able to send it back. What more could they possibly do.

If that's not customer service with a enormous C and S then i cannot imagine what is, short of having a guy drive up at your home in a limo and show you the item and drive off if you did not want it. lol.

Whats more even though we find out that the staff share in the company profits, you don't see them pushing things motivated by the incentive. If anything i have witnessed totally opposite behavior by staff where a customer was told they dont need something. Heck i will admit to being totally guilty of selling people stuff they did not need when i worked in a hardware store back in my youth, and i was not even incentivised by a profit share.

There have been marketing campaigns run by Best Buy in Canada to convince people its safe to consult their store associates making a point to explain that they not on commission. So that explains the NORM of perception. One cannot say that about a Car dealership service department perhaps they will wake up some day.

Its really not hard to have ethics and treat people in an appropriate manner. That's how i see this behavior.
 
His choice to do that. A publicly traded company owes as much profit to the investors as is possible. What LV did woud cause investors to pull out and the company would fold.
As for the Wal-Mart labor practices. There is no reason to knock WM. They employ 1.5 million, essentially unskilled, people and give them fair pay for their work. If they don't like it they can quit and go find another $12.50 per hour job utilizing their skills of stocking shelves and scannin bar codes elsewhere.
 
I'm with Bob on this subject.

LV certainly should be applauded for their management, employment, and compensation practices. Contrarily, on the other end of the spectrum are the Wall St. executives that have a multi-million dollar annual salary (as in tens of millions) plus stock options and other "discrete" incentive compensation. Presumably this is because they bring more to the table than what they are being paid.

However, what I'm referring to, and I believe Bob may be as well, is that LV is not a Wall St. entity. They are a much smaller company that was started up by an individual(s) with a dream to develop their own business. They are the ones that developed a business plan, have endured all the start-up & ongoing stresses & risks to keep their business viable, not the employees. Providing for their employees in the manner they do, is their way of enhancing & ensuring a profitable business. They are the ones that have the responsibility to look forward to an ever changing business environment & have to adapt accordingly to keep their business profitable, growing, and their employees employed, not the employees. In these days $200K is not an unusual salary for those in the smaller business category. If I were the owner, I would compensate myself accordingly, yet not excessively which I believe Wall St. does. I think $200K would be fair & not excessive.

My $.02
 
well frank, they must pay higher in your area than mine, a 12.50 a hour jobs is not normal.. 8.00 to 10.00 is a good starting pay up here if you can get it.. and for some technical jobs that required a fair amount of intelligence and skill set was only at 12.00 to 15.00..

as for sharing the profits,, if a company was to do that it would be more apt for the employees to show concern for waste and do more to be profitable,,
 
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