While I can't agree with you about Costco treating their employees like employers in other private industry arenas do, I would agree that they appear to be treated a bit better employees who work for other retailers.
Costco's requirements seem to be more stringent as well.
-With few exceptions, they only hire people who are able to communicate effectively in English with customers and other employees.
-Costco does not appear to hire older employees (though many have grown older working for Costco or previously with Price Co.)
-Like a lot of little mom&pop businesses, Costco employees have to wait 90-180 days following their hiring date before they are eligible for health benefits (most reasonable sized companies start coverage immediately or at the first of the month.)
Many CEOs and other corporate officers may have salaries that are not indicative of their overall income, and may have stock options that are worth many fold (to millions of times) their annual salary (e.g. Steve Job's $1/year salary that does not include a $1/2 Billion in stock grants that is to be fully vested in 2008.) So in addition to Sinegal's $350K monetary compensation, it quite honestly sounds a bit odd that he only has about $150M of Costco stock, being a founder of the company.
On the other hand, being humane and ethical in the treatment of their employees is not new. There was a fellow by the name of Thomas Watson that tried that with a time clock company in Endicott NY. It got a little bigger over the years and they changed to name of the company to International Business Machines
. While their employees are still treated better than employees of many other companies, one can't help but to think that their "lean & mean" approach from the 90's has less been successful in growing the company.
Biker Bear said:
The reason Costco is a better (if no-frills) experience is that they actually treat their employees like - GASP! - human beings. Their turnover rate is a fifth that of Wal*Mart, and they pay some of the best wages and benefits in mass-market retailing.