Wal-Mart Welfare

Below, are Robert Reich's comments about Wal-Mart's low wages that serves as a reminder that taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart employees around the country because of POOR WAGES.

When Massachusetts was considering what became 'Romney Care,' Wal-Mart and Dunkin Donuts headed the list of employers not provided health insurance for their workers.

Robert Reich

Yesterday, Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg said that my petition to Walmart to raise the wages of its workers "fails to mention the massive job opportunities that Walmart provides for its employees." He went on to say that "on any given day, Walmart has between 15,000 and 50,000 job openings and the company gives out around 160,000 promotions a year."

It's true that Walmart is creating lots of jobs -- the company is already America's biggest employer And undoubtedly some Walmart workers get promoted. But the fact is, Walmart's typical employee is still paid less than $9 an hour. To offer lousy jobs on such an extraordinary scale is not something to brag about. Indeed, the point of the petition -- as well as the national movement to raise the minimum wage toward $15 an hour -- is to recognize that most of these workers are adults, responsible for bringing home a significant share of their family's income, and that a decent society requires that workers be paid enough to lift them and their families out of poverty.

When Martin Luther King, Jr., led the March to Washington for Jobs and Justice, fifty years ago this week, one of the objectives was to raise the minimum wage to $2 an hour. Adjusted for inflation, $2 in 1963 would be over $15 dollars today. Walmart doesn't come even close to the American dream.



http://robertreich.org/post/59779897417