Remarks by Lee Scott, President and CEO Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Summit on the 21st Century Workforce, June 20, 2001
MCI Center, Washington, DC

MR. SCOTT: Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to take part in this work force summit. Wal-Mart's honored to have the opportunity to be here and to participate in this discussion. This is obviously an important subject to Wal-Mart, which represents the largest and most diverse work force in America today. In fact, as one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the world, we have a total work force of about 1.2 million people, and we see our work force changing as a great opportunity for the company.

We see this as an opportunity to strengthen and further diversify our work force. We see it as an opportunity to identify and develop talent for our stores around the world, and as an opportunity for those entering the work force to pursue their individual dreams. If you'd allow me to take just a moment and look at this from a macro viewpoint, as we look here at the United States and our national work force, clearly the United States work force is getting older and working longer. At Wal-Mart we see older Americans as a great reservoir of talent. More than 280,000 people over the age of 55 work for Wal-Mart throughout the United States. We are proud of this fact, and value the work and life experiences of these older Americans and the experiences that they bring to Wal-Mart. In fact, many of the older members of our work force are retired CEOs, retired senior executives of the companies who become really a little bit bored with retirement and come to Wal-Mart as people greeters. They end up being mentors to our store management team.

The national Hispanic population is exploding. Today, more than 35 million Americans are Hispanic, with three-quarters of those living in the half-dozen states including California, Texas, and Florida, but there's also a growing Hispanic population in places you might not expect, such as North Carolina, Georgia, and our home state of Arkansas. Wal-Mart has become the leading employer of Hispanics in the U.S., with a total Hispanic work force of 87,000. Meanwhile, Hispanic customers are among our most loyal. The African-American population also is growing. Today about 33 million African-American men and women hold jobs which represent 12 percent of the U.S. work force. Wal-Mart has become the leading private employer of African-Americans in the United States. We are proud that 140,000 African-Americans have chosen to work for Wal-Mart and that millions of American customers choose to shop with us every week.

The number of single mothers in our work force is growing. In fact, about 12 percent of U.S. women are single heads of households, and we know anecdotally that many of these women work for Wal-Mart. Many are attracted to Wal-Mart by the opportunity we provide to have a flexible work schedule and the fact that we offer health care benefits to both full and part-time workers.

Two final points about today's work force. First, health care is a big deal. More than half the people we hire tell us that one of the main reasons they join Wal-Mart is to join the health care program. In fact, 36 percent of the people we hired last year had no medical insurance prior to joining Wal-Mart.

How do these changes manifest themselves at Wal-Mart today? Today's changing work force, coupled with the low unemployment rate in an economy that is still growing, represents a great opportunity for today's workers. This is an environment that encourages a company like Wal-Mart to take chances in hiring and promoting people, and it is an environment that provides accelerated development opportunities and career advancement for everyone.

Of course, it's easy with a company like Wal-Mart to get caught up in the numbers. But you have to be very careful. Our business is a local business. It's not a national one. Our associates and our customers are individuals, not statistics. Wal-Mart operates over 3,000 individual local businesses in communities and neighborhoods across America. At their best, our stores are true a reflection of their communities and the merchandise they carry, the people they employ, the customers they serve, and the local charities they support. Let me give you just a couple of examples.

One of our neighborhood markets is located in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Richardson, Texas. We provide an assortment of unique items to cater to customers with Asian and Hispanic heritage. What's more, we have associates from 11 different countries working in that one store in Texas. Their photographs and flags of their countries are displayed with pride at the entrance to the store.

Just a few miles away from here, in Alexandria, Virginia, we have a store that has 45 different countries represented in that one Wal-Mart store. There are over 100 different languages spoken in that store. They are from countries including Bangladesh, Ghana, Panama, and the Philippines. You better believe that the management team in that store is diverse, and that most of our store managers speak at least two languages.

Diversity continues on even in the smaller towns that we service. Levy Nolan is a popular high school student who plays wide receiver on the football team. He likes to cruise around town with his friends, and decided to work part-time at the Wal-Mart store in my hometown of Baxter Springs, Kansas. Levy is a hard worker, has a great attitude, and a wonderful sense of humor, and he outworks most of his fellow stockmen at the store. So what's unique about Levy? He has a prosthetic leg, and his hands never fully developed. Our store manager in Baxter Springs hated to see Levy move away a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately he moved with his family to Benita, Oklahoma, where he's joined Wal-Mart in our store there.

There are numerous stories in a company the size of Wal-Mart about our people and the diversity of this current work force. I would, though, tell you that even though the work force is diverse, that there are commonalities.

The thing, as I travel across this world and I see our stores in China or Korea or the U.K. or Germany or South America, is the fact that not the differences we have, but the similarities we have. It is a simple fact that people everywhere want to be treated with respect. They want an opportunity to learn and to advance in their careers. They want to work in an environment of an open-door communication and one that is free of harassment and intimidation. In addition to a competitive wage, they want health care coverage for their families and an opportunity to save for their retirement. They also want an opportunity to share in the profits of their store and their company. Some want the opportunity to work a flexible schedule so that they can care for their children, a spouse, or parents. They want good leaders who know when it's time to work hard and who know when it's time to have fun. And if they work at Wal-Mart, I guarantee you they want a Wal-Mart discount card.

In closing, let me say this. We're not perfect at Wal-Mart. You don't have to read very many newspapers to understand that. Unfortunately, we don't always do everything as well as we would like to do it. Or as well as we should do it. But we wake up every morning and we try. And we do pretty well, or we wouldn't be the company that we have become today. So as we consider the changing demographics of our work force, let's also keep in mind what isn't changing. People of all cultures, races, and creeds share a common desire to be valued and treated fairly as individuals. If we can all do better at that, including Wal-Mart, the demographics will take care of themselves. Thank you for the privilege of sharing my views.