Summary: A new list of the top 10 lowest paying companies in America has been released and it features some of the biggest names in the country.

Even though the average hourly earnings for an American hit $24.53 in September, there are companies out there that pay their employees much less than this number, according to a new report from 24/7 Wall St.

  

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The fine folks over at 24/7 Wall St. put together a list of the 10 companies in America that pay their workers the least. Of these 10 companies, most seem to fall in one of the following three industries:

• Grocery stores
• Restaurant chains
• Retail

Arun Ivatury is a campaign strategist at the National Employment Law Project. Ivatury said, “These industries have embraced a low-wage business model. Their way of doing business is trying to squeeze as much out of their employees as they can, while paying them as little in wages and benefits as possible.”

The industries on the list fall into one of two sectors; wholesale and retail trade and leisure and hospitality.

To read more about the National Employment Law Project, click here.

“You can come up with all kinds of labels like associate, or team partner,” Ivatury said. “It doesn’t change the fact that you’re paying them as little as $7.25 an hour.” Employees at these companies “are basically treated as dispensable.”

24/7 Wall St. used data from the National Employment Law Project’s 2012 report titled “Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage” to compile the list of 10 companies that pay American workers the least.

The top 10 companies are as follows:

1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Total U.S. workforce of 1.4 million
2. McDonald’s Corp. Total U.S. workforce of 725,000
3. The Kroger Co. Total U.S, workforce of 375,000
4. Target Corp. Total U.S. workforce of 333,700
5. Yum! Brands, Inc. Total U.S. workforce of 636,200
6. Sears Holdings Corporation Total U.S. workforce of 226,000
7. Darden Restaurants, Inc. Total U.S. workforce of 202,900
8. Starbucks Corporation Total U.S. workforce 137,000
9. The TJX Companies, Inc. Total U.S. workforce 147,500
10. Macy’s Inc. Total U.S. workforce of 172,500

To read more about Starbucks, click here.

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Image credit: Getty Images