tl;dr: Corporate has been hyping up a big raise for a year now which turned out to be shit. A lot of tenured staff are still below the company-set minimum pay threshold for their role and feel betrayed and are at risk of walking out.
We’re all pissed over at r/petco! Here’s the rundown:
Last year Petco announced they were raising their minimum wage to $15/hr and adjusting other pay scales accordingly. That’s great! They could’ve left it there. Did they? No!
Instead they repeatedly told the more tenured staff they would be receiving a compression raise to offset the discrepancy in pay given their years of experience. This raise was a carrot they dangled in front of us for a year now, and was hyped up to be something to really look forward to. Was it worth it? No!
You were lucky to qualify for a raise at all, and those that did had it tied in with their yearly performance review and received at most a 3% increase. To put that into perspective, this holy grail compression/merit raise abomination turned out to be worse than the raises people were already pissed about receiving last year.
But why are people so pissed?? It’s hard times rights now after all. Well there’s a few reasons!
First, most people were under the assumption their pay would at least be bumped up to the minimum of the new pay scale created for their position. It was not. For example, the new pay scale for a department manager may have a minimum of $20/hr, but some tenured managers will still only make $16-17/hr. So can’t they just quit and get rehired for the new minimum? Nope! If they’re rehired within 6 months they’ll be reinstated at the same pay. That means corporate would rather hire someone new and spend the money to train them— and all at a higher rate, in many cases $2-3 an hour more.
Second, Petco brought in 6 billion dollars last year, a nearly 4% increase from the previous year. The CEO and team have raked in the big bucks with salary + bonus + stock rewards while those putting in the work at ground level get peanuts in return.
Third, morale is already at an all time low due to costs being cut at every corner. Payroll is lower than ever and leaving stores operating with a skeleton crew, poor supply chain decisions are leaving stores without product to sell, technology rollouts are glitchy and ineffective, and shady subscription programs are being forced down customers’ throats. Many workers have never felt more under-appreciated.
For many, this raise was a glimmer of hope and the only reason to stay. There has been a lot of talks about walkouts and soft quitting, and a sense of unease among teams. The executive team held a national call with all GMs yesterday but did not say one thing about the raises, instead they pushed more ridiculous pet pun sales initiatives on us like they expect anyone to care.