Some employees agree. They say the company is really cheap when it comes to overtime pay.

Now a local law firm, Tousley, Brain & Stephens, is calling on Wal-Mart employees who feel cheated to join a class action lawsuit against the company.

"We were locked in at night. Locked in," said Georgie Hartwig, a former Washington Wal-Mart Employee. Hartwig has worked for Wal-Mart for seven years. She claims the company doctored her time cards without her knowledge and forced her to work overtime without pay.

To wit: When she checked her time records at Wal-Mart one Saturday, they showed two hours of overtime from the previous week. When she checked her records again on Monday, the hours had vanished.

Hartwig's manager told her the time clock was broken, but now she and 40,000 other hourly Wal-Mart employees are part of a statewide class-action lawsuit that claims the retailer doctored pay records, forced employees to work unpaid overtime and otherwise cheated its workers in Washington.

"I had been told if you can't do it in 40 hours, or find a way to do it, we will find someone who can," she said.

Attorney Beth Terrell added, "That's the choice. It's better to get paid for 40 hours than to get paid none and lose your job.

"There is substantial evidence that there is pressure applied from the top down and that happens through conference calls and e-mail where the focus is on keeping the wages down."

Hartwig began working for Wal-Mart in the small Eastern Washington city of Colville in March 1994. With her husband on disability, she was the prime wage earner in her family; by the time she was laid off in October 2000, she was earning $9.15 an hour. She went without medical insurance, and she could afford to buy new clothes only at thrift shops and yard sales.

She and two other Wal-Mart workers sued the company in 2001. Early this month, King County Superior Court Judge Terry Lukens certified the case as a class action covering anyone who worked for Wal-Mart from September 1995 to the present in the state and who did not advance to management.

Local attorneys say similar lawsuits against the company have been filed in 39 states. Wal-Mart is also a target of an investigation by federal prosecutors who allege it knowingly hired contract cleaning services that use low-paid illegal workers, and faces a lawsuit on behalf of 1.6 million female workers that alleges the company discriminated against them in pay and promotions.

In a written statement, Wal-Mart told KOMO 4 News: "We strongly deny the allegations in these lawsuits and have not yet decided whether or not to appeal this decision. However, certifying this as a class does not mean that the company has done anything wrong or improper... These types of allegations are counter to everything the company stands for. Wal-Mart's policy is to pay associates for every minute they work."

To the contrary, the Washington state lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart had a culture of cheating its workers by shaving hours from time records and shifting hours into weeks when employees didn't work overtime.

So, we wanted to know, what do customers think?

"If this is true then I don't think I would shop here anymore," said Lynnwood customer Rick Driver. "If that's the way they treat their people, that's not right."

Another customer, Theresa, who shops at Wal-Mart weekly said, "I don't have a choice. $10 dollars for a new screwdriver versus $175 for the same type of set somewhere else. I can't afford it. I have to shop here. I don't have a choice."

Tousley Law firm says employees can call 1-800-299-8291 for more information on the lawsuit. Or check out the law firm's Web site at www.tousley.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report