My mother was a Wal-Mart employee for over 7 years. Her wage was pitiful, no dobut in my mind that she was descriminated agianst because of her sex, age, and that she has genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis which was severly disfiguring. Sure, she had a college education and good orginizational skills… but her physical apperance left her with the with a wal-mart job and seriously hindered any chance of Advancement.

And the “pitiful” plan left her paying large sums of money for much needed procedures stemming from the NF.

150.00 a week is a hell of alot of money when you only make 9.75 an hour.

The Chicago City Council voted 35-14 to impose a hyper-minimum wage on “big-box” retail stores with more than $1 billion of sales. The new law will require the likes of Wal-Mart, Target, Costco and Home Depot to pay every worker—regardless of experience, education or skill—a minimum wage of $13 an hour by 2010 ($10 in salary and $3 in health benefits). At least another dozen cities, including Washington, DC, are considering copy-cat laws. The national minimum wage remains $5.15 an hour.

The effect of this law is job loss. Left-wing activist groups are crowing that this hyper-minimum wage is so prohibitive it could keep out such corporate villains as Wal-Mart. As a result, the poor will pay higher prices. A study by the economics firm Global Insight calculates that the presence of Wal-Mart and other low-price retailers saves working families on average more than $2,000 a year. MIT professor Jerry Hausman has found that, although Wal-Mart does slightly reduce wage rates in nearby areas, its lower prices swamp that effect. The biggest beneficiaries are families with incomes of less than $10,000 for whom “a super center makes a 30 percent difference in what they can buy.”

When activists kept Wal-Mart out of Chicago’s South side last year, the company opened the store in nearby Evergreen Park instead. Now that store collects some $530 million a year in sales from Chicago residents without a penny of sales tax going to Chicago. The location where Wal-Mart was going to build remains an empty lot. Partly as a result of such anti-business policies, Chicagoans spend $5 billion a year shopping in the suburbs.

Presumably, this type of economic trade-off makes sense to Chicago politicians. What was gained in exchange for the loss of jobs, tax revenues and buying power? Ask a Chicago alderman.

2006 © Publius Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Since Wal-Mart employees make more than the minimum wage, what do you call poverty wages? IF you owned Wal-Mart, what would you do? How would you respond to your investors and employees when they questioned your course of action and its effect on sales?

In my previous post, I asked what would happen to the cost of gasoline if healthcare were a mandated expense? Think of the supply chain: Exxon/Mobil has to provide healthcare for its employees. That cost is added to the price. The next company in the system adds its cost into the system. Right on down to Patco adding its cost into the gasoline. So, how much will gasoline cost?

If the people at WalMart are as unhappy as you belive them to be, why don’t they go elsewhere for a job? Maybe, just maybe, all is not sour grapes at WalMart.

Regarding Costco v WalMart: Unionization of some employees makes the difference. WalMart employees have voted for no union at their stores, when such votes have been held. Ever wonder why?

What made me take my stance on wal-mart was when they pay their workers poverty wages, and charge their employees large amounts for their pitiful health care plan, and then Alice Walton turns around and pays $35 Million for a painting to hang in her home.

How many employees could recieve health care for that $35 million dollars?

Another intresting article, albeit old, is an outline of labor practices of Costco vs. Wal-Mart. It definatley sheds some light.

Does the Lakeville Journal provide 100% healthcare to all its employees? Does any employer? I work for a multinational corportation, Sodexho. I am a cook. I have their health plan because it is very good for the money. My wife does not have health insurance via the LJ, LLC. Does that mean she does not have health insurance? How many employees in our neck of the woods use HUSKY, the “state plan” that provides healthcare? How many LJ employees avail themselves of the company plan v.the state plan or a spousal plan? Why shouldn’t EVERY business be required to provide health care to every employee and their dependents?

Wal-Mart does NOTHING that will increase its cost of goods. IF the hypocrites, such as your friend, and the other bashers get their wish, who will pay the price? If the LJ, LLC was REQUIRED to provide healthcare, which implies no cost to the employee and dependents, what would it cost to buy a Journal? What would gasoline cost? Electricity? ad nauseum.

The domestic auto industry is in financial trouble. Part of the problem is the zero dollar healthcare: UAW members pay zero dollars for healthcare. It is estimated that this benefit currently adds $3000 to the cost of a new car.

Politicians are trough feeders. Their only job is to keep feeding from the trough. Their career goal is to move up the trough. Wal-Mart is a convenient target for them. The sheeple that hang on their every pronouncement nod in agreement, like well trained animals.

There is a simple solution to the animosity towards Wal-Mart. This is America; start your own business. Offer whatever benefits and perks you want to your employees. Then you can answer the question: does socialism really work?