>

When thousands of your employees are on welfare, you aren't paying them enough. The government has spent millions of dollars subsidizing Walmart's business because they don't pay their workers enough.
Walmart's problem isn't just the wages, it's their manipulation of hours. They give just enough hours at inconsistent times to limit an employee from getting a second job, while not providing enough hours to make an employee eligible for health insurance. Until there's more regulation on this issue, or consumer accountability, then all walmart has to do is reduce employees by another one or two hours to make this wage increase functionally mean nothing. >

They also get rid of positions altogether basically every 6 months. When I worked there they were chronically under staffed and most of the staff they do have are useless, or at least act like it, and I can't really blame them. >

Why would you bust your ass for Walmart? Like even if you need the job, there is zero incentive. >

This is good news in that it represents a step in the right direction, but it isn't enough.

In my Inaugural, I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living. 

FDR >


but it isn't enough

got my first job in a lumber yard in '88 at $12hr (my 2 bed apt was $400, smokes were $1 a pack, and gas was $.99 per gal) and when i quit a few years later i was making $21hr
it's not nearly enough and it's insane that young people are expected to get anywhere making what i did 35 years ago >

$12 in '88 is $29.69 after inflation. People making $14 now are getting the equivalent of less than $6 in '88. >

Minimum wage was introduced in 1938 at $0.25/hour, or about $5.12 adjusted for inflation.
$14/hour is more than anyone on minimum wage in the US has ever made (adjusted for inflation), which peaked out in 1970 at about $12/hour. 
At this point, the federal minimum wage is mainly there to prevent exploitation. I don't know of any major company that pays that little. >

You would be surprised. A lot of companies get away with paying only minimum wage and if you are a server then you make even less than that and are expected to supplement the rest with their tips. It doesn’t make for a happy employee. Remember that when you don’t tip your server due to bad service. >

In 2020, people making minimum wage accounted for 1.5% of all hourly workers.
Also, if a server's wages plus tips does not meet the federal minimum wage, the employer must pay the difference. >

Okay, but that says that 1.5% are making $7.25 an hour or less. Further reading shows that 32% make less than $15 an hour. Compare that with what would be considered the average living wage in the U.S at $24 an hour. Looks pretty bleak for the younger folks. >

If Costco can afford to start at $17 an hour, Walmart should be able to start at least that. >

It’s fine to quibble about the difference in structure and business model, but the larger and more important point is that Walmart’s net income last year was $13.67 Billion, yet an enormous number of their employees rely on government assistance programs just to survive.
Sure, they’re structured very differently from CostCo.
They can still afford to pay their store-level workforce considerably more. >

The Walton family fortune is broken down as such:
Jim Walton, $66.9 billion[13]
Alice Walton, $66 billion[14]
S. Robson Walton, $65.7 billion[15]
Lukas Walton, $16.7 billion[16]
Ann Walton Kroenke, $9.1 billion[17]
Nancy Walton Laurie, $8.2 billion[18]
Christy Walton, $8 billion[19]

sorry don't have any more spare billions to share with employees.... >

What are these figures in brackets please? >

It looks like they copied it from somewhere the numbers would be links to sources on the original page
Probably wikipedia. >

Or maybe it's the number of the Walton clan from No 1 to the youngest heir as I see it's chronological >

Next time one of you goes into Walmart and some dead eyed employee gives you the bare minimum help or flat out ignores you I want you to remember this.  
Walmart doesn't give a shit about those people so why should they care about Walmart. >

I’m pretty sure I’ve been to Walmart like 6 times in 3 years.    5 of those were during COVID searching for TP.   
I went like a month ago to buy a hunting license while I was visiting my in laws.   
80% of me doesn’t understand why people still shop there.   The other 20% of me realizes that I’m better off than a portion of society and willing to pay more for a better grocery store with better food and that treats their employees (somewhat) better.  
Where my in laws live there is Walmart and Tops.   Those are the only grocery stores.  And I’ll admit that it’s convenient to get your tires replaced while you buy paint and groceries….    But go support local businesses.  Even locally franchises businesses. >

Correct on all accounts.  I honestly can't remember the last time I shopped at Walmart. Not only do they treat their employees awful but they also contract companies to make worse versions of things they already make to cut costs. Why would I buy a pair of shoes there when I can get the same exact pair somewhere else they'll last me way longer? >

And Aldi in MD was paying new cashiers $15 and higher years before the pandemic. This isn't enough. >

After 10 years at Walmart and multiple position changes I was making 13.27 an hour… >

Hooly shit, why did you stay there and not go anywhere else?
I feel spoiled in tech, I see people stick around maybe 2 to 3 years just so they can finally get a raise. >

It was easy. I am always nervous about leaving a job. Not really sure. I stuck it out 10 years and the next job is took had better hours and better starting pay than I was getting at Walmart >

"Raise will keep them calm enough that they won't unionize." >

Heh, that's cute. If workers try to unionize, corporate shutters the store. It's the New American Way. >

To the best of my knowledge there is only one department of walmart workers that successfully unionized without stores being shuttered. It was the meat processors (in store butchers). What Walmart did instead? That department was removed nationwide and the they moved to frozen meat pre processed at the packing plants. 
It's been over a decade since I worked at Walmart, but on your first day of orientation they show you a video. It's not a welcome to Walmart one either. 
It's a union busting video. >

"Walmart raises their minimum wage from below a livable wage to still below a livable wage." >

I'd rather stand outside Walmart for an hour for free than stand inside Walmart for an hour for $2. Just saying.