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Note that Walmart hasn't released pay figures for 26% of its workforce, which is part-time, and earns less than the full-time employees. This is the way corps like Walmart hide their actual pay rates. Just for one thing.
http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/
g...art_pay_gap.htm
You can keep kicking that dead horse about the raise in minimum wage not being about helping workers, but then your logic turns in on itself. Why would so many who just love the fact that those at the top of the pay scale keep gaining while ordinary workers' salaries are falling be against something that wasn't about raising pay?
Oh yeah, the "union" argument. Spare me. Unions already have many ways to attract new members. They don't need a little law in a little place like ABQ to do it.
And pay issues aren't the only thing that put Walmart in a category of its own:
http://walmartwatch.com/pdf/2005...nual-
report.pdf
Barb, even that last link has the average pay of a Wal-Mart sales associate at $8.50 an hour. So, I just don't see your point.
Now let me put this to rest once and for all. I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart. I go out of my way to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart. However, it is not because I have a problem with their business practices, it is because I prefer a different level of service and a better quality product. I also work anywhere from 60 to 70 hours a week to be able to make that choice.
I've had minimum wage jobs, and I've worked my way out of them. I've worked in unionized environments (teacher, actor) and found them to be counterproductive on many levels.
There is nothing livable about the proposed "living wage," and nobody is entitled to a certain wage. They need to earn it. Nobody has to work for Wal-Mart or any other business that pays a wage they don't like.
If you inflate wages, business will find the path of least resistance (i.e. another municipality, state or country) and most profitability.
Oh, and when you demonize profitability of corporate conglomerates, just remember that pension funds of union employess are among those stockholders demanding ever greater returns.
The point is they pay way less than comparable businesses and help drive the salaries of the working class down. Period. Do you really support the large percentage of Walmart's workers who are forced to depend on food stamps and Medicaid to survive? To me, it's a civic duty to pay a fair wage and if large corporations refuse to do it, I think government should step in and at least attempt to level the playing field for the good of ALL.
Of course the living wage isn't really enough to live on, but it's a start. You have to start somewhere when the Republican Congress has refused to raise the federal minimum wage for TEN YEARS.
Of course you could work your way out of minimum wage jobs -- you're intelligent and obviously operate without many of the problems of people with much less intellectual, social or economic capacity. To me, a culture is judged on how it treats those without the benefits of its high performers, as much as how it treats those with talents and privileges.
Moreover, I'd much rather have people making enough to live, even in the lowest rungs, than to spend astronomical amounts on jails and courts and crime. If you don't have much going for you in terms of smarts, connections, social skills or education, why not just sell drugs and make a good buck rather than working for peanuts?
Many of these large corps are making HUGE profits and can certainly afford to pay their workers a decent human wage. If we want our civilization to continue and strengthen, people must have a real stake in the economy. Decent pay is one way to provide an important element of that. Otherwise, you're looking at a future America that looks alot like Argentina....
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