Dollar General Is Deemed a ‘Severe Violator’ by the Labor Department according to a New York Times Article.
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Vermont is home to 34 Dollar General Stores, known as often for their hot mess of overflowing aisles and piles of boxes in the corner as they are for their purported discount prices.
Dollar General's other hot mess is their treatment of employees. The New York Times reports that "OSHA has cited the company for 111 instances of workplace safety violations and imposed more than $15.5 million in penalties."
That's a lot of air fresheners, party supplies, and old DVD's.
According to the article, the Labor Department considers Dollar General as a "Severe Violator" saying that the company type of company that "willfully or repeatedly violated safety standards."
OSHA inspectors say they have found issues that include obstructed fire exits and boxes of merchandise piled in the aisles or stacked up to the ceiling.
"With 19,000 stores in the United States, Dollar General operates twice as many locations as Walmart and Target combined," says the Times.
Meanwhile, Dollar General is the lowest paying retail store chain in the United States. According to a UBS report, Dollar General pays employees the least among 25 major US retailers, at $9.68 an hour on average. Dollar Tree and Dollar King follow closely behind at $10, and $10.11, respectively.
Walmart, by comparison, pays employees $13.08 an hour on average, while Target recently raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour.
That doesn't bother investors, however, as the company's share price has more than doubled over the five year period that OSHA has been citing them with violations.
The most likely takeaway is that Vermonters won't stop shopping in Dollar General stores, but they might want to watch out for falling box towers full of picture frames.
