Two-Thirds of Walmart Warehouse Workers Worry About Hitting Work Quotas
Walmart warehouse workers may be getting the Amazon treatment.
United for Respect (UFR) and the Center for Urban Economic Development released a report Thursday detailing the adverse impacts Walmart’s warehouse workers face, both in terms of health and economic instability.
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Bianca Agustin, co-executive director of the labor group, said up until this point, UFR’s campaigns have focused more on Walmart’s in-store associates than its warehouse workers. It expects to use the results of this research to further its work on the Walmart campaign, including warehouse workers.
Historically, UFR has focused on Amazon warehouse workers because the e-commerce giant doesn’t have anything close to the brick-and-mortar footprint of Walmart. The organization released research last year with Oxfam showing that four in 10 employees in both companies’ warehouses said they felt pressure to work faster all or most of the time.
Deeper research on Walmart, taken from a 2023 survey of over 440 warehouse workers for the company, showed that nearly 60 percent of its warehouse workers said the level of monitoring at Walmart exceeds that of their previous employer, and 56 percent said keeping up with the pace of work in the warehouse has proven difficult. Nearly three in 10 employees reported an injury of some kind during their time at Walmart, and about 40 percent of respondents said injuries were attributable to the pace of work.
In addition to those statistics, 67 percent of warehouse employees said their work is “always or most of the time” measured in detail by technology in the warehouse, and half of employees said their pace of work is compared with their coworkers’ pace of work. As a result, about two-thirds of workers said they, at least sometimes, feel anxious when thinking about hitting their quotas.
Agustin said she was surprised to see such a high proportion of workers addressing their mental health in the survey, and noted that the struggles they face may be related to workers’ anxieties about paying their bills and caring for their families. The data collected shows 48 percent of employees reported issues with paying their bills in full; two in five said they had experienced food insecurity and one-third had experienced housing insecurity.
“I think when [technology] is tied to your livelihood, there’s an added sense of urgency. This data can’t be uncoupled from the other appalling stat about workers experiencing food insecurity or economic insecurity—Walmart warehouse workers actually have an average wage that is above retail store workers, so to hear that even they are struggling economically, I think, is one of the reasons you’re probably seeing workers go into a warehouse and struggle to make quota,” Agustin said.
The organizer believes Walmart may have tried to base its model for warehouse efficiency on the Amazon strategy, which has come under scrutiny by labor groups and unions, as well as legislators and regulatory bodies. Given Amazon’s logistical prowess, particularly in the U.S. market, other companies have made plays to keep themselves relevant and meet shopper expectations—and Walmart may be one of the company’s most immediate challenger.
“This is where Amazon shines. Walmart is trying to catch up, and one of the things I was wondering is, are they simply adopting Amazon’s productivity and surveillance tech model in the warehouses to catch up?” she told Sourcing Journal. “Unfortunately, the answer from this survey is, yes, they are 100 percent trying to implement very similar surveillance mechanisms and productivity quotas that are attached to discipline.”
Walmart did not return Sourcing Journal’s request for comment. Agustin said UFR has not had any contact with Walmart about the issue because “they have refused to engage.”
Federal legislation stipulating quota transparency requirements and banning quotas that negatively influence workers’ ability to take breaks for meals or restroom use may soon be on the way. The Warehouse Worker Protection Act, introduced by Senate Democrats Ed Markey, Bob Casey and Tina Smith in May was reintroduced with bipartisan support Wednesday; Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) was added as a co-sponsor, signaling a tide change for the bill as Republicans put their support behind workers’ rights.
“We are excited that it got reintroduced with some Republicans’ support; we think that’s an indication that it may actually pass in this Congress, which seems like something exceptional these days,” she said. “We think a bipartisan bill on an issue like this makes a lot of sense. Both parties claim to be for working families. This is an issue, given the sheer scale of operation of [Amazon and Walmart], would actually make a huge difference to people’s wellbeing.”
The bill has also received bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. In June, representatives Haley Stevens (D-MI), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) introduced the bill. Though the bill has been reported to target Amazon directly, Markey said in a press conference earlier this year that “the rest of the big warehousing companies are close behind” the e-commerce giant in terms of impact.
The Teamsters shared a similar sentiment to Agustin about the legislation’s resurface, Sean O’Brien, the union’s general president, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Warehouse workers, particularly those at Amazon, have been subjected to grueling production quotas, resulting in some of the highest injury rates in the industry, all while struggling with low pay,” O’Brien said. “Thankfully, putting a stop to these exploitative practices has begun to gain bipartisan momentum in both chambers of Congress. We are grateful to lawmakers from both sides of the aisle for their leadership in supporting this critical piece of legislation. It’s time to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act and ensure workers’ safety comes before corporate greed.”
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