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That is simply not true. Otherwise a government study wouldn't have concluded that WAL-MART Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees (remember Walmart is the U.S.'s largest employer)
"The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that the low wages at ONE average Walmart store result in the following additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers:
- $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
- $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family.
- $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children.
- $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of 2 children.
- $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an average of two children qualify.
- $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance."
The total figure is based on the average $420,750 per-store figure, multiplied by 3700 (the approximate number of stores currently in the United States).
Source: Rep. George Miller / Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, "Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart", February 16, 2004.
government studies as you put it are not always government studies. How many people do you know that work for WalMart and how many of those are sole supporters of their families? Retail has never been known as a high paying profession, but people choose to work retail for whatever reason. I know a lot of Wal Mart employees and I talk to a lot of others, most are not sole bread winners. of course some are. bTW if you work full time at Wal Mart you, most likely would not qualify for section 8. Do you realize those studies, you are quoting could be based on WalMart employees who work less than 40 hours a week?
Why do you assume that the offspring of the Sam Walton "have done nothing but count their money........... the heirs have probably never worked a hard day's work in their lives."
That's quite an accusation but based on what? Your inside knowledge of the Walton family?
Have you ever run a successful company?
If not then get after it and show everyone how it should be done.
and the anti WalMart libs here refuse to address how much the Waltons give to charity? I doubt any of them know a thing about the family, the foundation or anything else, except maybe what they read in either the left trash reports or they google...
I don't support the American mindset of consume, consume, consume. That being said, people who choose to work in an industry such as retail should know that a day like Black Friday may require them to work. I worked in the hotel industry for years (a 24/7, 365 days of the year type of work), and no one compained about working the holidays (employees choose their hours and it was time and a half). It was an expected part of the job.
But people complaining about the plight of the poor workers LOL. These retailers keep expanding their hours because you (the consumer) demand it.
'Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), the lion's share of which went instead to Walmart's shareholders -- including the family of its founder, Sam Walton, who earned on their Walmart stock more than the combined earnings of the bottom 40 percent of American workers.
Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday -- so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.
At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public -- not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.'
The only thing I can say about this is 1.Remember Hostess? 2.We will be supporting the Walmart workers who choose to protest today.... when they're fired and go on unemployment!
Does anyone other than the Union and the Occupy crowd think it's a smart move to walk off a job and get into a pi$$ing match you will NOT win? When you're fired for walking off the job you'll be replaced rather quickly I'm sure. All you've gained is the ability to say "We told them" while standing in the various assistance lines.
My wife worked for Walmart so I'm certainly no fan but she chose to work there and chose to not work there when she'd had enough.
I don't support the American mindset of consume, consume, consume. That being said, people who choose to work in an industry such as retail should know that a day like Black Friday may require them to work. I worked in the hotel industry for years (a 24/7, 365 days of the year type of work), and no one compained about working the holidays (employees choose their hours and it was time and a half). It was an expected part of the job.
But people complaining about the plight of the poor workers LOL. These retailers keep expanding their hours because you (the consumer) demand it.
Yep..I don't do Black Friday...I have shopped three times at 12:01am on Friday..too many people and really not that great of sales.
If Walmart workers don't like working there...well get a skill and work somewhere else...
When I was a kid, the men in my family on both the Canadian side and the American side had good union jobs, rich people were still rich and getting richer even at a tax rate of 70%, society was relatively stable, and businesspeople were respected. Then came the Neocons and ALEC and Reagan and their dupes and the country started its downhill slide into plutocracy.
Maybe Walmart management is worried that they are losing the anti-worker country they helped build. Romney lost.
When I was a kid, the men in my family on both the Canadian side and the American side had good union jobs, rich people were still rich and getting richer even at a tax rate of 70%, society was relatively stable, and businesspeople were respected. Then came the Neocons and ALEC and Reagan and their dupes and the country started its downhill slide into plutocracy.
Maybe Walmart management is worried that they are losing the anti-worker country they helped build. Romney lost.
I don't think the "Black Friday" issue is that deep. People have indicated a wish to shop, so stores are open.
No it isn't. I shop at Canadian owned stores that are so different than Walmart it's like day and night.
Home hardware for instance has over 40,000 different products and are priced right. The Great Canadian Superstore is Canadian owned, union shop and IMO is 10000 times better than Walmart in every single area.
I don't shop at walmart and I won't shop at walmart. NOT until they start to PAY their employees a living wage.
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