Big Lots
Happiness rating is 58 out of 100
3.4 out of 5 stars.
Write a review

Big Lots Pay & Benefits reviews: Associate

Review this company
Job Title
Associate242 reviews
Location
All

Ratings by category

Clear
3.3Work-Life Balance
2.9Pay & Benefits
2.9Job Security & Advancement
3.2Management
3.2Culture

Sort by

HelpfulnessRatingDate
Found 88 reviews matching the searchSee all 7,706 reviews
furniturestorebiglotsdiscountcashiertruckstockingshelf

Fun place to work. Discounts are good.

Indeed Featured review

The most useful review selected by Indeed
I like working there . The discounts are good. Hours are flexible. Fun people to work with. The pay could be better. Management are all fair. The furniture is always 30 percent off.

Pros

Discounts

Cons

Management could be better
Was this review helpful?

Greedy corporation

Corporate home office cut hoursI was part time promised 20 - 25 hrs week never went over 12 first 2 weeks then 8 then 4!!!!!How the can anyone surviveIts not just. Big lots!!!
Was this review helpful?

Big Lots insights

Based on 4,233 survey responses
Areas for improvement
  • Fair pay for job
  • Overall satisfaction
  • Sense of belonging

Lucked out on solid co-workers but

As mentioned in title, I lucked out (even during high turnover) with management during my time working at this specific location. Some people won't be so lucky, so your mileage may vary. Digressing...The workers and managers I was surrounded with ranged from "tolerable" to "great and supportive". I worked in every part of the store, yet never felt any pressure thanks to my co-workers.The only issue is (surprise surprise) how corporations tend to undervalue workers, specifically their pay. I was paid horribly and rarely did corporate give out full-time hours. Even then it wouldn't be worth it for pay alone. Not even managers during this period got even remotely close to a living wage which is ridiculous...

Pros

Lucked out on great co-workers, leading to a comfortable working enviornment despite the pressure

Cons

terrible pay and general corporate neglect you see in pretty much every corporation
Was this review helpful?

Fun place to work, great team!

Love going to work each day. The work pace is balanced and not overly demanding. The day is always a mix of tasks. Not repetitive at all. Don't expect 40 hours or a decent pay. This is more for side money.

Pros

Employee discounts and flexible scheduling

Cons

Customers. Pay is only minimum wage.
Was this review helpful?

Fun place to work, friendly coworkers

It was a great place to work. They never worked you too hard and were very understanding of home life and working around my schedule as single mom, loved the discount, really came in handy

Pros

Great discount

Cons

Pay
Was this review helpful?

Rate your recent company

Share your experience to help others

This is literally the worst place to work!!!!

If you can pay your living cost with only 8 hours a week, then this is a job for you! If you need hours and want a job where the manager doesn't make empty promises to keep you working there, then this is not for you! I have never been so disrespected at a job like this one. Put in all kinds of hard work in the store to impress corporate just so the managers can take credit for it. They don't care about their workers. Also their raises are a complete joke work a year for 10 cents!

Pros

They consider themselves a real job/company

Cons

The store manager will tell you lies so you won't find a new job
Was this review helpful?

Enjoyable place to work.

Enjoyable place to work. Coworkers and management are all good people. Flexible hours. Management great when accomidations are needed to deal with family life. Only complaint is the pay.

Pros

Free lunches, breaks, flexibility with family. Coworkers and management are easily to work with.

Cons

Pay, uniforms black polyester are very uncomfortable in the summer. AC not working properly in building..
Was this review helpful?

Fine job for students

Big lots was fine to work at. The management was great for the most part and helped a lot when needed. You can get practically any schedule you want there. The pay was perfectly fine for the work you do but not if you have a lot of bills to pay, it's mainly only good for students that can use some extra cash.

Pros

Management, Schedule

Cons

None
Was this review helpful?

Easy job

Easy job. Easy system to learn. Low paying with very small raises once a year. (One cashier has been there a year and got $.12/hr. for his raise) Part time only work. Pressure to get "reward cards" and credit cards.

Pros

Easy

Cons

Low pay small raises
Was this review helpful?

retail, but overall good place to work

Met a lot of different people. The other associates make the workplace feel like a family environment. Flexible part-time schedules are a huge plus with big lots.

Pros

flexible schedules

Cons

no full time hours for associates.
Was this review helpful?

Jobs at Big Lots

Associate positions
See more jobs

good for a meaningless retail job

each store has different leadership (or lackthereof), the pay is the worst being less than other retailers though it is weekly, and annual raise is less than everywhere else; if you're a generic associate, you can and will do everything (furniture lifting, stocking, unloading truck, cashier, upselling, furniture sales, fetching carts, cleaning bathrooms daily) whether you like it or not or physically can or not; No room for advancement opportunities; no benefits or support from Corporate; very clear that Corporate side of the company doesn't really care about its employees and that is also reflected in the store management; Workplace culture depends on your management team. The most enjoyable parts of the job are pay day and when you leave.

Pros

flexible hours pending availability, weekly pay, guaranteed breaks, 15-20% discount prices;

Cons

no advancement, no benefits, no support from management or Corporate, no accountability for management shortcomings
Was this review helpful?

Okay

not bad overall. need better pay. flexible schedule but if you don't work a lot you obviously cannot expect to see a big paycheck, so better pay would have been nice.
Was this review helpful?

Coworkers and the discount are good.

I enjoyed the job but the pay is unfair. When the minimum wage is raised, the raised earned yearly is counted in as the mandated dollar state wage. There is also a lot of pressure on associates to get rewards and credit cards. Hours are competitive but the managers are helpful with scheduling. Job advancement is limited and a typical day at work is doing busy tasks.

Pros

Discounts and flexibility.

Cons

Lazy management, low pay
Was this review helpful?

Friendly and insistently helpful staff, only part time- offerings for work.

Assigned work criteria changes throughout the work day,$$ regular advancement in pay, no tips, no overtime,Various schedule changes ( part time employees ),

Pros

Team atmosphere, timed pay raises, employee discounts.

Cons

Not enough to make rent AND pay regular bills/ expenses.
Was this review helpful?

Fairly easy, fast paced environment

Pay isn’t nearly enough especially with the hours they give out. No full time positions even available for associates. Again pay isn’t enough for work done. I learned three positions to work in the store to get more hours and there are still weeks I get 8 hours. I have been there nearly a year now. No raise for time spent there, nor hour increase. I need to find a second or better job because I cannot pay my expenses based off my hours and pay. It’s impossible. The company doesn’t seem the care either. Managers are nice for most part but one is very disrespectful to associates and I have seen it with customers. Not a pleasant place to work and if I could find a job that isn’t a warehouse I would be out of here.

Pros

Interactive, I like to help people

Cons

Managers, pay, hours
Was this review helpful?

Fellow associates make it worth it alone.

The false promise of promotion at biglots is what drove me to look for new work. Managers will go behind your back promising if you put in the effort, the gates to more money and/or time will open. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. They will continuously loop you into thinking that the harder you work the better, but in the end it is a lie. You can work 20x harder then anyone at your location while the managers sit in the office playing games on their phones or watching videos, instead of leading by example to boost morale. They don't hire full time because they don't want to pay out benefits but if you get hurt on the job due to their unsafe work environment they make sure you know that going to the hospital will cost them "$20,000" on top of you losing your job. The only reason i stayed so long is because COVID and the associates on your level they are so caring and kind and because they work as much as you creates a great talking point for the day to give you the hope you need to make it through the work week. certain managers make you feel out of place and as if you are below them and I know with my hands I work too hard and make to great a difference to be frowned upon by someone whos only advantage over mine is simply being called a manager.

Pros

other regular employees

Cons

hours, degrading managers, no chance for promotion, no benefits
Was this review helpful?

Pretty mellow work.

Very different from any other retail store, maybe slightly in that it's a little more laid back (stark comparison to say, Wal-Mart, in terms of comfortability), perhaps because of the customer demographics. Weekly pay is nice, & not too demanding in the labor department.

Pros

Nice coworkers!

Cons

Meh, nothing really.
Was this review helpful?

You will never get a full schedule of hours.

Low pay, everyone starts at 9.50. Management will take away your hours if you ever call out sick leaving you with 1 shift. Promotions are rare but always given to whoever begs the hardest and has the lowest self worth since the pay raise is maybe a dollar or two for anything other than store manager. Benefits? Non-existent for part timers. They love to cut hours for stores across the board from corporate and say "why aren't yall doing well, the store is a mess" while giving only enough hours to put maybe one person on register and one in the furniture department leaving no one to work floor or stock. District and regional leaders are generally incompetent and unaware of how the stores actually operate and would rather come in and do a "walk through" and hold up managers for 4 hours complaining about the store while ignoring every request from store leaders for anything that could fix it. When managers ask for hours, corporate instead tells them to hire more people, mind you without hours, the new people just get the hours of the older people.

Pros

Literally nothing other than the discount

Cons

Corporate, managers, pay, employee policies, low hours
Was this review helpful?

Productive

Very friendly workplace, not very challenging, they had very flexible hours and schedules, decent starting pay, very understanding managment team, decent benefits, and hard workers.

Pros

Health Care

Cons

Registers are always broken
Was this review helpful?

Average Part-Time Job

Management is ok, hours and pay are not the best. Expectations a bit high for pay and hours with little room for advancement. Recommend as 2nd part time job.

Pros

Flexible Scheduling

Cons

Low pay
Was this review helpful?

Management isn't always the best, pay isn't good

Starting pay for no experience is not worth what they put you through, especially when working trucks. General manager and store team leads are good, district manager and other high ups make work a nightmare.
Was this review helpful?

More reviews from Associate

See all 242 reviews

Want to know more about working here?

Ask a question about working or interviewing at Big Lots. Our community is ready to answer.Ask a Question

Overall rating

Based on 7,706 reviews

Ratings by category

3.3 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
2.9 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits
2.9 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement
3.2 out of 5 stars for Management
3.2 out of 5 stars for Culture

Ratings from women

2.7
InHerSight Score
2.3Personal Development
3.2Career Opportunities
2.5Family Support
Women rate the female-friendliness of their workplaces on InHerSight
Powered byInHerSight

Compare Big Lots with

Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare
Compare

Questions about Big Lots

Big Lots Reviews by Job Title

Explore related careers in US

Optometrist$123,278 per year
See more related careers

Popular locations for Associate in US

Explore similar careers

Discussion topics at Big Lots

Professional development

Mission and values

PTO and work-life balance

Work from home

Parents and caregivers

Internships and graduate programs

COVID-19 response

Accessibility, Disability and Accommodation

What’s it like working at Big Lots?

Learn about Big Lots in popular locations

See all Big Lots locations
  • Companies
  • Big Lots
  • Employee Reviews
  • Associate
  • Pay & Benefits
Tell us how to improve this page
What would you add or change?