One Walmart's Low Wages Could Cost Taxpayers $900,000 Per Year, House Dems Find

[FreakinDJ]

One Walmart's Low Wages Could Cost Taxpayers $900,000 Per Year, House Dems Find

Walmart wages are so low that many of its workers rely on food stamps and other government aid programs to fulfill their basic needs, a reality that could cost taxpayers as much as $900,000 at just one Walmart Supercenter in Wisconsin, according to a study released by Congressional Democrats on Thursday.

Though the study assumes that most workers who qualify for the public assistance programs do take advantage of them, it injects a potent data point into a national debate about the minimum wage at a time when many Walmart and fast food workers are mounting strikes in pursuit of higher wages.

The study uses Medicaid data released in Wisconsin to piece together the annual cost to taxpayers for providing a host of social safety net programs, including food stamps and publicly subsidized health care, to workers at one Supercenter in the state.

According to the report, Walmart had more workers enrolled in the state’s public health care program in the last quarter of last year than any other employer, with 3,216 people enrolled. When the dependents of those workers were factored in, the number of enrollees came to 9,207.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/walmart-taxpayers-house-report_n_3365814.html

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. One store! ONE!

[SoCalDem]

3. How about passing a "Walmart Tax" and call it that.. for every community that has one

Make the locals understand just how much those low-low prices are costing them..

[freshwest]

18. Sounds about right. Stop the bleeding where it starts. Put a tourniquet on the predators. n/t

[another_liberal]

4. However . . .

The people who own Walmart don't care. They hide the bulk of their taxable income in overseas shelters, so it's everybody else who will have to pay taxes to cover the expense of any poverty caused by Walmart's low wages and nearly nonexistent benefits.

[AndyA]

5. Walmart = corporate welfare whores

This is just wrong on so many levels. When you consider all the local, "Mom and Pop" businesses that Walmart puts out of business, it's very harmful to the local community.

The bottom line is, Congress must act immediately to implement a minimum wage that represents the actual cost of living today. In the past, when the minimum wage has been increased, it did not result in a reduction in employment, so to say that an increase would lead to job loss is a lie.

Perhaps Congress should consider passing a law that businesses cannot rely on public funding to supplement their employee living expenses, as Walmart does.

Walmart has abused the system for a long time, and a relatively few number of people have profited from it. I've said it for years, Walmart shoppers are literally shopping themselves out of jobs.

[indepat]

17. Aided and abetted by and partnered with Uncle Sam which means you and I

pay for this unfettered and unquenchable greed.

[donnasgirl]

6. I could be wrong about the number

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/jan/12/robert-hagan/rep-robert-hagan-slams-wal-mart-over-workers-needi/

It is high time someone looks into each state and give a final number as to what it is costing tax payers.

[FreakinDJ]

12. $67 million "for the year" on food stamps and Medicaid for Wal-Mart workers = Just in Ohio

[donnasgirl]

13. I do believe

That number is off, but what it shows is what wal mart is costing the American tax payers. We the people need to get off our lazy asses and do something about this, 1 question I have and have had for years now is, where are the cheap prices, if we buy the product and have to support the employees on the government end there are no cheap prices it is our money that supports the employees. The same goes for any corporation who receives subsidies, we pay at both ends and that practice has to stop.

[shawn703]

7. Found these numbers, not vouching for accuracy

As of November 30, 2006, there were 1,092 Wal-Mart Discount Stores in the United States.
As of November 30, 2006, there were 2,195 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States.
As of November 30, 2006, there were 110 Neighborhood Markets in the United States.
As of November 30, 2006, there were 576 Sam’s Clubs in the United States.
Not counting Sam’s Clubs there are a total of 3397 "Wal-marts". Counting Sam’s Clubs there are a total of 3973 "Wal-marts


Doing the math, it doesn't look pretty.

[Myrina]

8. That seems alot for just ONE store ...

3,216 people work at ONE WalMart? Why are the checkout lines so long?

[mountain grammy]

9. My cousin says she shops at Dollar Stores because "they're not Walmarts."

I say we need to be like the rich and hoard our money. Really, that's a joke, but the $5 spent on a piece of cheap crap we don't need from a corporation that doesn't support Americans could be sent to liberal candidates who might actually change things.
Trust me, you can find the same cheap crap at a thrift store or yard sale for less than a buck.

[hopemountain]

16. i used to go to the dollar

store when it was a real dollar store - a time when they resold good quality stuff from closeouts. now they sell smaller sizes and amounts of watered down crap and still charge a dollar. if you check the labels, most everything is from china or china via canada or mexico. it's all crap. not worth my dollar. the last time i was in a dollar store the horrendous toxic odor from all of the plastic (from china) was overwhelming. later learned china was being fined for exporting higher levels of toxics to the u.s.

reuse, recycle, buy local. and it's true, mountain granny, there is good quality used stuff at the 2nd hand store or for sale on local classified ads.

[lonestarnot]

10. K & R!

[riderinthestorm]

11. K&R! Wow. nt

[polynomial]

14. The Robber Barons of America

Wal-Mart business operations should sound familiar, get a strong cup of coffee then think about this.

Surprise it is, according to many definitions; Robber barons is a derogatory term applied to wealthy and powerful 19th century American businessmen. By the late 1800s, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used what were considered to be exploitative practices to amass their wealth, via the media, then the local press, and exploiting the constitution.

Wiki is a source for this background; however there are other key resources throughout the internet. What jumps out to all of America should be the key player in all of this is the “media”.

Echoes of the past still with America today…

Dig deeper; these practices included exerting control over national resources, accruing high levels of government influence, paying extremely low wages, squashing competition by acquiring competitors in order to create monopolies and eventually raise prices, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors in a manner which would eventually destroy the company (Romney investment banking strategies) for which the stock was issued and impoverish investors.

These echoes of the past are normal business operations in today’s corporate environment masked by repetition media commercials in cultural jabberwocky, sort of like a Louis Carol, Alice in wonderland story, of reputational modern form of Icon Corporate entities, sugar coated with medieval treachery done with charm in this new age of communication commercials.

Media news and commercials if observed closely are designed with exquisite, elegant, craving passions in human interest that drive America in and out of the Gaussian bubble. All helping Americans to understand what can be in your wallet and want it, or get financing through dishonesty, fraud corruption, swindling, while big business gets free money through the treasury and the Federal Reserve at little to no want of payback by bailout. A very creepy social issue.

What is alarming is the very idea that in this Bush era torture is good. Whereas during a long period of civil unrest commonly known as "The Anarchy" centuries ago, torture was common to extract money from any rich people.

If all this torture stuff is secret in a war, how do we as Americans know that torture is accomplishing especially for selfish unspeakable tortures in today’s real time wars, money likely was Cheney’s real goal besides establishing a Democracy? Ron Paul revealed a notion of this when commenting that the Republicans need to regain their fortunes lost in previous elections.

Bush himself makes the claim that the stakes are high; of course perusing a fortune in profiteering through torture in war is the action of a deplorable trader according to the Constitution.

Yes America is a powerful diverse society; however with any of the elements just discussed, which are embedded in the Republican manifold America, will never have a Golden Age of peace prosperity, or liberty, and justice for all.

[DainBramaged]

15. Six years or more ago we talked about this here

Nothng has been done.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. Savvy!