Wal-Mart changes pay structure

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is raising starting pay at about a third of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores by an average 6 percent and introducing wage caps for the first time on each type of job in all stores, the company said Monday.

The nation’s largest private employer said the changes would help it remain competitive with other retailers and meet a need for workers and managers as it continues to expand.

Wal-Mart has more than 1.3 million U.S. employees, which it refers to as associates.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Chicago became the largest city in the nation to require big-box retailers to pay a “living wage,” despite objections from Wal-Mart and other businesses. Chicago’s City Council adopted an ordinance requiring mega-retailers to pay at least $10 an hour plus $3 in fringe benefits by mid-2010.

Wal-Mart denied any connection to the Chicago vote. The pay increases began before the vote and have taken effect at more than 1,200 stores spread across the country, Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said.

“Starbucks Corp. has fired the co-founder of a union claiming to represent employees at six of its Manhattan coffee houses.

Daniel Gross, a barista and organizer for IWW Starbucks Workers Union, a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, said Monday that he is challenging his termination, which followed a company investigation into an allegation that he made a threatening remark to a district manager at a recent union rally.

Gross, who has led union organizing efforts at Starbucks for the past three years, countered that he was simply making a statement of solidarity when he told District Manager Allison Marx that a fellow employee should not be fired.

Gross, 27, said the IWW filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday alleging he was wrongfully terminated.

“General Motors Corp. filed a multibillion-dollar claim against auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., which has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Troy, Mich.-based Delphi said in a document filed Monday that the automaker submitted the claim July 31, the deadline for filing unsecured claims against the auto parts supplier. Delphi used to be a subsidiary of GM and is still its biggest supplier. Delphi’s ability to continue operations affects GM’s viability, the automaker has said in the past.

Delphi has said it also has claims against the automaker.