Wal-Mart wage class action settlement in Minnesota

Falling prices at Wal-Mart are touted as a good thing. But there can be a darkside. One is when falling prices come at the expense of nickel and diming employees out of wage checks.

Here is a report on a $54 million class settlement for Minnesota Wal-Mart employees whose break times were cut and who worked off the clock.

I don't have any first hand knowledge of the case, and I'm not aware of a signed order granting approval. Still, this appears to be good news for Minnesota Wal-Mart employees and a wise move for the giant retailer.

There are those who criticize wage and hour class actions. They say, for example, that each employee gets very little back because the claims are often over small amounts of pay. But those small amounts of pay ingore several important facts.

The most important is that those who work by the hour have little else to sell. They're entitled to get paid for all service because they're doing the work. Every nickel of shorted pay is theft from the hourly working person who, I might add, won't be getting the fat bonuses or golden parachutes.

But the bigger thing is that when a large employer nickels and dimes many employees out of break time or small increments of off-the-clock time, it gets a lot of free labor. That's money that goes to profit and the stockholders at the expens of those who are actually working.  As well, when one large employer gets away with wage law violations, it gains an unfair advantage over the many honorable and honest businesses that follow wage and hour rules.

So this looks to be a good deal for the employees. And to Wal-Mart's credit, it will presumably learn a valuable lesson and obey the law in the future.