I love hearing good news stories rather than the typical doom and gloom stories that the media outlets seem to be putting out. This one made me smile…
A company giving back to their employees
Recently I heard that David Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby stores, decided to increase their minimum wage to $10/hour. The change will affect 9,200 of their full-time employees and will cost the company about $15 million dollars each year.
Spokeswoman Carol Troy said they took the action because, “they have had a profitable year and want to pass that on to their employees.” And David Green said, ““Our employees are the backbone of our company, and we believe that giving them the opportunity to share in our success is the right thing to do,”
Apparently David Green is a Christian and he runs the business with Biblical values in mind. What’s exciting is that you can see God’s hand on that business as it thrives in an economy that is putting many businesses under. Over the last year Hobby Lobby has actually had a significant increase in sales and they have plans for expanding in 2009, opening 25 new stores while creating another 1000 jobs.
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That is great to hear. My company froze wages this year. I haven’t had a lot of experience with Hobby Lobby, but the few times I’ve been in their stores it’s looked like a mess. Hard to see how they’re having a profitable year, but hey more power to them.
I heard about this recently at church. It is so refreshing to hear about something like this when it seems that most companies these days are just out to make as much money as they can without any care or concern for their employees or their customers. Thanks for sharing the news!
It’s nice to hear some good news for a change. I love walking through Hobby Lobby and hearing hymns playing over the intercom.
And because instead of hording profits, he gave raises to his employees, I’m sure the company will do even better over the coming years.
Good to see that the world isn’t coming to an end… at least not yet.
I heard the interview that Dave Ramsey did with David Green right after the pay increase was announced. His point was that Hobby Lobby was not participating in the recession. I was visiting Liberty University today and heard how Liberty had cut tuition for all students by $500 …. another organization not participating in the recession.
I heard the interview that Dave Ramsey did with David Green right after the pay increase was announced. His point was that Hobby Lobby was not participating in the recession. I was visiting Liberty University today and heard how Liberty had cut tuition for all students by $500 …. another organization not participating in the recession.
On a recent Dave Ramsey show, someone asked for examples of businesses that were operating debt free. He mentioned Hobby Lobby, as well as Chick-Fil-A and a couple of others I believe. Maybe they’re on the right track. Personally, I’m a real estate investor and one of the first rules in real estate is to leverage your money. Purchase as much as you can with as little cash as you can. I’m starting to waver on that, but I’m not confident that debt free is the way to go. Hmm…
Being a previous HL employee, I can give you the facts. I worked there for 4 years off and on and they are the WORST most UNCHRISTIAN place EVER!!
When they gave this raise to all of the full-time employees and department heads, all of us part time employees were let go, and they are now refusing to pay us unemployment– including two single mothers who are now living off of welfare and having to stay at friends’ places because they can’t afford to pay rent anywhere.
I’ve quit twice and now been fired twice from this place. The first time, they didn’t even bother letting me know I was fired. They refused unemployment for me then, too.
Take my word for it: this company is VERY good at pretending to be something it’s not. Appearances are deceiving.
As a Hobby Lobby employee for nearing a decade, I can say your experience was a minority, Jess. Keep in mind that they’re a Christian business, but a business nonetheless. The company pays for half of all Angel Food for full time employees. The company doubled all 401k contributions of all employees last year. They have a 2 full time Chaplins available for all employees. The list of positives go on and on. Of course everything isn’t always so peachy. They do a fine job of taking care of those who take care of them.
After over 10 years with the companyi can say that Jess is very right about Hobby Lobby. I chose to leave this company after such along time because instead of making my faith stronger, it had weekend it. I was in upper management, the pay was fair to begin with, but when you figure it up per hour, it is lacking. I was so excited when they closed on sundays, and in the beginning it was great, but after a few years things changed. Management in my area was made to work on sundays, or shall i say strongly encouraged and berated if we didn’t. when i finally left i was working a minimum of 70 hours per week, but more like 80. I realized that family was not important to them, money was. I watched numerous fellow managers marriages fail, or the married ones left and it was growing to be either single men and women, or ones without children at home.
As for the chaplins, even when my parents died i never saw or heard from them. I did try to contact david greene after leaving to make him aware of the situations in his store, as i don’t feel his plan was to have an environment so unfamily friendly, but i never heard back from him, and friends who still work there say nothing has changed.
So uncle charley i am going to guess that your are either single, no children, or your children are grown.
I have worked for Hobby Lobby for over a decade and all I will tell you is don’t believe that everything is so great working for this company! The norm at HL is little to nothing for raises and little to no respect for people who work hard day in and day out!
I know a young person who was fired because they called in sick one day and didn’t have a doctors note. Going to the doc would have cost more money than they could afford especially after missing a day of pay! I don’t think this was fair to a person who has worked there over a year, was head of two departments and was a hard worker for the company. I’ve completely lost respect for this company and will not shop there again.
I helped set my store up and have been with the company since, I can’t understand how this company can say they are Christian based but keep the majority of there employees as part-tiimers to avoid paying them $10 an hour. I only get to work around 25 hours a week (I beg for more hours.) Although current employees are begging for more hours mangement is about to hire new people. I don’t understand. Why not give your loyal part-timers a full time position. I know why because you can split one full time position between 2 employees and save 2 dollars per hour. I understand the concept of working your way up but in my case we all started at the same time, work just as hard, and are just as qualified as the employees who are getting full time pay and hours.
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