Workers Are No Longer Heroes, Kroger Concludes
The grocery-store chain is ending “hero pay” nationwide.
nymag.com
What Kroger giveth, Kroger taketh away. The national grocery-store chain will end a $2 per hour "hero pay" bonus for workers on May 17, the United Food and Commercial Workers union announced on Thursday. Kroger only implemented the raise last month; the pandemic, meanwhile, shows no sign of ending, and the risks for essential workers remain very real.
So how is Kroger doing financially?
Press Release
ir.kroger.com
Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2019 Results
- Fourth Quarter Identical Sales without fuel grew 2.0%, digital sales grew 22%
- Fourth Quarter EPS of $0.40; Adjusted EPS of $0.57, up 18.8%
- Fourth Quarter Operating Profit of $537 million; Adjusted FIFO Operating Profit of $758 million, up 20.7%
- Full Year Identical Sales without fuel grew 2.0%, digital sales grew 29%
- Full Year EPS of $2.04; Adjusted Full Year EPS of $2.19
- Full Year Operating Profit of $2.3 billion; Adjusted Full Year FIFO Operating Profit of $3 billion
- Full Year cost savings of over $1 billion
- Full Year alternative profit streams contribute over $100 million of incremental operating profit
- Confirms Identical Sales without fuel, Adjusted FIFO Operating Profit and Adjusted EPS guidance for 2020
...oh. Well at least the people at top are in this all the same, right?
Did you know CEO @kroger Rodney McMullen made $11,701,917 in total compensation. $1,311,984 received as a salary, $2,692,833 received as a bonus, $2,367,858 received in stock options, $4,999,996 awarded as stock and $329,246 came from other types of compensation
...OH.
At least they have their employees health at heart, right?
In late April, UFCW announced that at least 30 of the grocery-store workers it represents have died of COVID-19. Four Kroger employees died from the virus in Michigan alone.
Kroger waited until April to limit the number of customers allowed in stores at a time, and workers in regional chains that Kroger owns have complained that the company was slow to offer adequate COVID-19 testing and protective gear. Essential workers have said for months that they don't think of themselves as heroes, and aren't asking to be treated as such; they want living wages, protective gear, and safe workplaces. They want fair compensation for their labor, and that's further than Kroger is willing to go.
...OH.
Well, they're just some small time grocery store, right?
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the United States' largest supermarket by revenue, the second-largest general retailer.
...OH.