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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri May 9, 2014, 07:40 AM May 2014

The President Should Make Walmart Part of the Minimum Wage Debate

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/09-2

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“No family should work full time and live in poverty.”

That’s been President Obama’s rallying cry on the stump, persuasively arguing for an increase in the federal (and state) minimum wage. Yet on Friday, President Obama plans to visit a Walmart in Mountain View to celebrate their efforts to become more energy efficient. That’s a mistake. Walmart, the country’s largest private employer, pays (at the highest estimate) 825,000 workers less than $25,000 a year, the line at which a family with two children working full-time falls into poverty.

And that is a choice the company is making. Walmart could give all of those workers a raise now. Last year, Demos found that for what it spent buying back its own stock Walmart could pay all of its workers over $25,000 a year. Walmart spent $7.6 billion on stock repurchases in 2013, which do nothing to boost the company’s productivity or profits. The Walton heirs alone, already some of the wealthiest people in the country, made $2.6 billion from that round of share buybacks. Buybacks aren’t of long-term use to the company, even for its shareholders. On the other hand, a raise across the retail sector would boost growth, and create over 100,000 new jobs.

Earlier this week, Pam Ramos, a Walmart worker in Mountain View, wrote a must-read piece for Salon on the implications. Key quote:

“I want the president to help us and tell Walmart to pay us enough to cover the bills and take care of our families. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask from such a profitable company, a company that sets the standard for jobs in this country. And I hope it’s not too much to ask from a president who believes that income inequality is the defining challenge of our time.”
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The President Should Make Walmart Part of the Minimum Wage Debate (Original Post) xchrom May 2014 OP
I would say that is pretty much what he is doing madokie May 2014 #1
Walmart should *be* the debate about pipoman May 2014 #2
Hear, hear! k&r n/t Laelth May 2014 #3

madokie

(51,076 posts)
1. I would say that is pretty much what he is doing
Fri May 9, 2014, 07:44 AM
May 2014

by going there today.
The message isn't always the words spelled out.

 

pipoman

(16,038 posts)
2. Walmart should *be* the debate about
Fri May 9, 2014, 08:00 AM
May 2014

Working poor and they should be the example at every turn. ..

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