Walmart Raising the Wage for 500,000 Employees

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/walmart-raising-wage-500000-employees

Walmart has a long and storied (and well-earned) reputation for shortchanging its employees. That may change slightly following the corporate behemoth’s announcement this morning that it will be raising the pay of about half a million of its employees.

The new rate increase will raise hourly pay for employees to $9 as of April. Walmart says it also plans a second increase that will ensure all associates will be making $10 by next February.

Not only does this potentially alter Walmart’s image as one of the most egregious examples of corporate greed – it may have a big impact on the ongoing national conversation around raising the minimum wage.

The announcement came as part of Walmart’s quarterly earnings announcement. In the release, CEO Doug McMillon stated:

“Current and future associates will benefit from this initiative, which ensures that Walmart hourly associates earn at least $1.75 above today's federal minimum wage, or $9.00 per hour, in April. The following year, by Feb. 1, 2016, current associates will earn at least $10.00 per hour.”

***15 and a union should remain the goal.

[RiverLover]

1. Baby steps.

At least its something! Agree 15 + a union is the goal.

[xchrom]

2. WAL-MART RAISES WILL STILL LEAVE MANY UNABLE TO PAY EXPENSES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WAL_MART_LIVING_WAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-19-17-28-35

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For roughly 500,000 Wal-Mart workers set to receive pay raises, something is better than nothing.

But it still won't be enough for many of them to afford housing and transportation and feed and raise children without government aid, according to economists and researchers.

The nation's largest private employer - with 1.3 million jobs - unveiled a salary bump for many of its lowest-paid workers on Thursday, promising a 1.1 percent increase in the average full-time wage over the next year, to $13 an hour. Part-time workers would get a 5.2 percent raise, to an average $10 an hour, by February 2016.

Both fall below the $15 an hour "living wage" many union-backed Wal-Mart employees have been pushing for. Driven by rising income inequality and a decades-long decline in middle-class jobs, workers are also campaigning for steep wage hikes at other major non-unionized employers, including McDonalds and other fast food chains.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. I looked at the raises, and was underwhelmed.

The Health and Human Services Department has a table of poverty threshold numbers at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm

$9 per hour for a 30 hour week and a 52 week year comes to $14,040. The poverty threshold for a single person is $11,670 and for a family of 2 is $15,730.

Department managers will get $13 per hour. Assuming a 40 hour week, that's $27,040 per annum. The threshold for a family of four is $23,850, and for a family of five is $27,910

Walmart is not being generous

[JimDandy]

4. It's a start. Will this reduce their impact on the EBT system

though?

[unblock]

5. in poker terms, it's called a "blocking bet"

sometimes, in poker, you don't want your opponent to make a decent sized bet. so you make a modest bet of your own in order to deter or prohibit the bet size you're worried about.

in this case, mal-wart knows sees the popularity of a $15/hr minimum wage, at least in a number of states. they are not happy with that as a minimum wage, so they are making this modest raise themselves in order to deter higher minimum wage.

it somewhat undercuts the argument for the legislative solution. after all, mal-wart is the prime target for the minimum wage laws.

[B Calm]

6. My right wing neighbor's daughter is managing a Walmart in Miami. He told me she was making

over $100,000.00 per year. He also said she has a hard time getting the lazy workers to do anything.

[Lars39]

8. she sounds lovely.

I'm betting the peasants didnt keep shrinkage down enough and she got a smaller yearly bonus of 40k or whatever.
Sheesh

[B Calm]

10. They raised her as a bible beating evangelical holy roller Pentecostal and boy

they're sure proud of her!

[Lars39]

11. I bet she just spreads joy and sunshine wherever she goes.

Ugh

[MarianJack]

7. Wanna bet that there'll be a BOATLOAD of firings in March?

PEACE!

[Fumesucker]

9. If low wages weren't blatantly hurting the bottom line Walmart wouldn't have done that

The writing on the wall just got lit up in neon..