Large, Profitable Companies Employ Most Minimum-Wage Earners

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/168969/large-profitable-companies-employ-most-minimum-wage-earners

If you’ve ever had a conversation about the minimum wage with friends and family, you invariably hear an argument about how raising it would hurt small businesses.

There is compelling academic research that increasing the minimum wage doesn’t dramatically impact employment levels, but a new study released today underscores another important point—most people earning minimum wage work for large, profitable corporations.

The National Employment Law Project looked at Census data from 2009–11 and found that 66 percent of low-wage workers are employed by large businesses with over 100 employees. Moreover, it found that the fifty largest employers of low-wage workers have all recovered from the recession and are in strong financial positions:

92 percent were profitable last year.

78 percent have been profitable for the last three years.

75 percent have higher revenues now than before the recession, and 73 percent have higher cash holdings.

63 percent have higher operating margins than before the recession.

[patrice]

1. That makes sense, because social influence is different in large relatively anonymous groups. nt

[xchrom]

2. want a real Recovery? Raise the Minimum Wage.

http://www.nationofchange.org/want-real-recovery-raise-minimum-wage-1342791951


Scratch the surface of just about any economic debate this election year, and you'll find one issue that goes all the way to the core: the yawning gap between the 1% and the rest of us, as skyrocketing income inequality. A new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), "Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage," shows the extremes of that divide, and makes the case for raising the federal minimum wage as a means of closing that gap, and putting the national economy on the road to a real recovery.

The report explores the connection between stagnant —and falling — wages, and it's central finding explodes the argument that raising the minimum wage will cause employers to stop hiring, and the hurt small businesses that opponents of a minimum wage increase (and of the idea of a minimum wage itself) claim are the primary employers of low-wage workers.

The central finding of this report is that the majority of America’s lowest‐paid workers are employed by large corporations, not small businesses, and that most of the largest low‐wage employers have recovered from the recession and are in a strong financial position.

The data in the report only strengthens the case.

The majority (66 percent) of low‐wage workers are not employed by small businesses, but rather by large corporations with over 100 employees;
The 50 largest employers of low‐wage workers have largely recovered from the recession and most are in strong financial positions: 92 percent were profitable last year; 78 percent have been profitable for the last three years; 75 percent have higher revenues now than before the recession; 73 percent have higher cash holdings; and 63 percent have higher operating margins (a measure of profitability).
Top executive compensation averaged $9.4 million last year at these firms, and they have returned $174.8 billion to shareholders in dividends or share buybacks over the past five years.

[xchrom]

3. not ready for this to disappear just yet. nt

[HiPointDem]

4. i'll kick it too.