If Walmart Paid its 1.4 Million U.S. Workers a Living Wage, it Would Result in Almost No Pain for the Average Customer

[dreamdancer 0]

wonder what the corporate mouthpieces here have to say...

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A study released this week found that if the nation's largest low-wage employer, Walmart, were to pay its 1.4 million U.S. workers a living wage of at least $12 per hour and pass every single penny of the costs onto consumers, the average Walmart customer would pay just 46 cents more per shopping trip, or around $12 extra dollars each year.

Consider that the next time you hear some corporate mouthpiece warning of massive job losses if some minimally progressive policy were enacted. You never see them arguing on the cable news shows that increasing the minimum wage will hurt Walmart’s or McDonald's bottom lines; it’s always about the jobs that will be destroyed. According to the ubiquitous spin, large corporations, the embodiments of American-style capitalism, are so vulnerable to the meddling of no-nothing bureaucrats that any government intervention into the “free market” drives corporations away to sunnier locales or threatens their very existence. However well intentioned, it all ends up costing workers their jobs.

But the new study, conducted by Ken Jacobs and Dave Graham-Squire at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and Stephanie Luce at CUNY's Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, suggests that low-wage employers could pay their workers a wage that would afford them a dignified existence without threatening their profitability.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150685/if_walmart_paid_its_1.4_million_u.s._workers_a_living_wage%2C_it_would_result_in_almost_no_pain_for_the_average_customer/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[NewGuy2005 53]

So, $12 is the magic number?

If Wal-Mart raised everyone to that wage, would everyone shut the hell up about them? Seriously, if Wal-Mart started paying everyone $12 per hour today, would they become the darlings of the progressive movement tomorrow?

Tell me what you would say about Wal-Mart tomorrow if they did it.

[Belgian_Draft 0]

So you are saying one cannot live on Walmart wages?
I know several people who do just that. See, they live within their means and don't try to buy a Mercedes on a Kia budget.
Granted you most likely can't raise a family on those wages, but is it every employers responsibility to pay wages that a person can support a family of four on? I say no, it is not. It is the responsibility of each person to obtain the skills and education needed to get a job that pays the wages they want.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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So, $12 is the magic number?

If Wal-Mart raised everyone to that wage, would everyone shut the hell up about them? Seriously, if Wal-Mart started paying everyone $12 per hour today, would they become the darlings of the progressive movement tomorrow?

Tell me what you would say about Wal-Mart tomorrow if they did it.

Wallmart does pay $12.00/hr around here and the left still hates them.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

The other day I saw a news story where McDonalds was looking to hire more than 4000 new workers across Canada (I have no idea what wages they were paying) and the first thing that went through my mind was "The nation needs to re-evaluate their diets if 4000 new McDonalds workers are needed". Walmart and McDonalds. You get what you paid for. You get crap (more so at McPukes).

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[NewGuy2005 53]

Should I never eat hamburgers, or should I just never eat one at McDonald's?

[rhaig 0]

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So, $12 is the magic number?

If Wal-Mart raised everyone to that wage, would everyone shut the hell up about them? Seriously, if Wal-Mart started paying everyone $12 per hour today, would they become the darlings of the progressive movement tomorrow?

Tell me what you would say about Wal-Mart tomorrow if they did it.

Wallmart does pay $12.00/hr around here and the left still hates them.

yeah, but those are canadian dollars.

--
Rob

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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yeah, but those are canadian dollars.

Which currently are worth more than the Greenback.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Should I never eat hamburgers, or should I just never eat one at McDonald's?

I am a proud member of PETA ...

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[rhaig 0]

yeah, but making fun of Canada was sport for so long, it's still fun to do.

And see how quickly you rose to the bait?

--
Rob

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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making fun of Canada was sport for so long, it's still fun to do.

We have water, we have oil, we have natural resources coming out of our ying yangs. If you try to take them from us with an invasion, we will beat you back with our hockey sticks from our frozen igloo fortresses. We do however have a big problem in the Spring (best time for you to invade us to steal all our natural resources). You see we suffer massive power failures when our igloos begin to melt and short circuit our electrical supplies, plus for those who's igloos don't melt until June, we are too busy watching the playoffs in the Spring to worry about beating back some invasion.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[rhaig 0]

don't forget your snipers. serious ass snipers in your military.

--
Rob

[billvon 3,114]

>If Wal-Mart raised everyone to that wage, would everyone shut the hell up about them?

Nope. Because all those Wal-Mart workers would now have more purchasing power. They'd be willing to pay more for rent, for used cars, for food etc. As a result prices would rise - and the new number would be $14. Dreamdancer himself would probably attack Wal-Mart for paying only $12 an hour instead of a living wage.

[BIGUN 1,483]

From the same article...

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Meanwhile, while Walmart's customers are not exactly rich, those “who spend the most at the store are somewhat less likely to come from poor and low-income families.” As a result, only 28 percent of the additional costs would be paid by the poor and the near-poor.

[Only] 28% of the additional costs would be paid by the near/poor...

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[normiss 893]

If you seriously consider those pucks McDeath sells to be a hamburger, you a LOT to learn about hamburgers.

[billvon 3,114]

>we will beat you back with our hockey sticks from our frozen igloo fortresses.

If you haven't caught on yet, our CO2 emissions are all part of a long term plan to invade Canada. We'll wait until it warms up enough that those fortresses are melting in January, then just waltz in.

[NewGuy2005 53]

I do consider them to be hamburgers, but not very good ones. I don't consider them to be lethal.

Now, MY hamburgers, those are good hamburgers.

[Amazon 7]

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yeah, but those are canadian dollars.

Which currently are worth more than the Greenback.

Nope.. Try again

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Nope.. Try again

Talking out of your ass again?

http://www.financialpost.com/markets/currencies/index.html

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[Belgian_Draft 0]

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>we will beat you back with our hockey sticks from our frozen igloo fortresses.

If you haven't caught on yet, our CO2 emissions are all part of a long term plan to invade Canada. We'll wait until it warms up enough that those fortresses are melting in January, then just waltz in.

You may want to waltz, but me and my peeps are gonna BOOGEY right on in.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[pirana 0]

Walmart really doesn't care about most of the stuff mentioned. Their #1 goal (pretty much their only goal) is to provide the lowest priced merchandise as they can to the masses. If they could pay $1 per hour and still attract the labor they need, they'd would. If that meant their employees lived in 3rd world style tarpaper shacks - their rhetoric would be similar to their current speil.

They would simply point out that they are responding to the market and that their goal is not to buy people homes and cars and health care, but simply to do right for their customers by providing the lowest possible prices.

As long as people keep shopping there - that will not change. Of course Walmart has done their fair share to disembowel US labor (as much or more so than the unions they piss and moan about all the time) by carrying an inventory that is probably at least 90% made in Asia.

I wonder if it was an unexpected benefit of their extreme philosophy on low prices, or if they had models that indicated purchasing all of their inventory from overseas would create a class that could not afford to shop anywhere else. Either way, their customer base is really locked in.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[Belgian_Draft 0]

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Walmart really doesn't care about most of the stuff mentioned. Their #1 goal (pretty much their only goal) is to provide the lowest priced merchandise as they can to the masses. If they could pay $1 per hour and still attract the labor they need, they'd would. If that meant their employees lived in 3rd world style tarpaper shacks - their rhetoric would be similar to their current speil.

They would simply point out that they are responding to the market and that their goal is not to buy people homes and cars and health care, but simply to do right for their customers by providing the lowest possible prices.

As long as people keep shopping there - that will not change. Of course Walmart has done their fair share to disembowel US labor (as much or more so than the unions they piss and moan about all the time) by carrying an inventory that is probably at least 90% made in Asia.

I wonder if it was an unexpected benefit of their extreme philosophy on low prices, or if they had models that indicated purchasing all of their inventory from overseas would create a class that could not afford to shop anywhere else. Either way, their customer base is really locked in.

Since products made overseas rival American made goods in quality and can be sold far cheaper for greater profit, there will always be stores importing and selling the stuff. Why should I pay $59.95 for an American made toaster that may last five years when I can buy a Chinese made toaster for $24.95 that will last 10 years? The days of "Made in the USA" meaning "Highest Quality" are gone. If all else were equal i would pay a small, maybe 10%, premium to buy Amaerican...but I, as most people, will not pay 25%-50%-100% more for something that may or may not be as good. Chances are it isn't.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[normiss 893]

Disagree.
Their #1 goal is to show profits to the shareholders.

[kelpdiver 2]

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The other day I saw a news story where McDonalds was looking to hire more than 4000 new workers across Canada (I have no idea what wages they were paying) and the first thing that went through my mind was "The nation needs to re-evaluate their diets if 4000 new McDonalds workers are needed". Walmart and McDonalds. You get what you paid for. You get crap (more so at McPukes).

McDs announced it was 50,000 new hires for the US.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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McDs announced it was 50,000 new hires for the US.

Makes sense, the US has 10 times the population than Canada has. Still, you have to question people's diets if McPukes is expanding it's work force.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over