,Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott Jr. endorsed a minimum wage hike.

[heidler1]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/051104/general.html?.v=1

The strategy was highlighted by an unusual seminar Wal-Mart hosted Friday in Washington. The event featured numerous academics and economists analyzing Wal-Mart's impact on the country. Not all of the studies were positive.

The main overarching study, prepared for Wal-Mart by Global Insight, an economic consulting firm, found the retailer's overall economic impact was positive. It found the retailer's expansion correlated with a 3.1% cumulative decline in overall consumer prices and a net increase of 210,000 jobs. It also said households save $2,329 a year thanks to Wal-Mart.

"Nominal wages are 2.2% lower," the study found, "but given that consumer prices are 3.1% lower, real disposable income is 0.9% higher than it would have been in a world without Wal-Mart."

The study also found evidence that Wal-Mart's pay is comparable to the industry average in the same markets.

[HillDem]

1. Hidden agenda? Oh yeah

This is going to hurt their competition more than them, thats why they support it.

[ClassWarrior]

4. No matter their motive, it's still the right thing to do.

NGU.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Doesn't mean WalMart has to abide by the minimum wage, they

certainly can pay more if they chose and if they did, maybe their workers could afford the outrageous health premiums they charge their employees. Screw WalMart!

[ClassWarrior]

2. Good. That's one victory. Let's push these bastards for more.

NGU.

[ClintonTyree]

3. Pretty safe statement to make........

since he knows there's no way in hell the republican controlled Congress would ever pass it.

It's just a PR move to make Wall*Mart a little more humane. If the minimum wage hike is ever approved they'll be screaming bloody murder. Bet on it!

[Deja Q]

7. I say "Bring it on!"

:D

[ClassWarrior]

8. Exactly. Call their bluff.

(And that Pong avatar ROCKS.)

NGU.

[China_cat]

11. From their own memo

"Given the impact of tenure on wages and benefits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55% more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an Associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart"

Translation, we don't want people staying more than 2 years, no matter what.

Part of advocating for a minimum wage increase is knowing that you have a strategy in place for cutting your employees anyway. Some of the methods outlined are making sure they don't stay long (above), removing families from health care benefit packages, placing more physical requirements on any potential hire (amount to be lifted, etc), cutting hours..."We have allowed our full-time Associates to average only 34 hours of work per week", capping life insurance benefits to $12,000, reducing payroll (salaries plus benefits) from 2.4% of sales to 2%.

I have a full copy of the memo here. It's enough to make you sick.

[heidler1]

12. One unintended consequence is getting some attention for the needed

increase in the min wage. The Republicans are vulnerable on that. They are even more vul. on their tax ideas like doing away with the interest deduction on income tax. Bush has led the Congress down a path called Republicans are against the poor.

[Deja Q]

5. Yeah but the quality of those 3.1% items is something like 20% lower

and for many items at walmart, the price is 3 PENNIES lower than anywhere else.

[ClintonTyree]

9. And the average family saves over $2,000 a year?

I'm calling, "BULLSHIT" on that one. Those that have to shop at Wal*Mart probably don't spend that much ina year's time in there. Those that can afford to shop somewhere else usually will, the quality at Wal*Mart isn't exactly the best.
I'd like to see the data that supports that claim.

[shadowknows69]

10. and how many american manufacturing jobs are lost

for that 2k in savings? I'll bet if we had some real jobs in this country people wouldn't have to worry about saving money with Walmart's junk merch.