CNBC: Can large corporations afford a $15 minimum wage better than small businesses?
Despite the fact that roughly half of the minimum wage workforce is employed at businesses with fewer than 100 employees, corporations such as Wal-Mart have been used as the poster child in the case for a much higher wage floor.
This claim rests on three talking points: These companies sell billions of dollars of retail goods or food products; their CEOs are typically paid a lot of money; and the higher pay will help get their employees off government programs.
None of these justifications survive careful scrutiny. MORE HERE
I call Bullshit!! Especially since the vast majority of employees are part-time and certainly aren’t eligible for the added benefits that full-timers get. Obama Care has really fucked the low and middle class. Big companies like Walmart are exploiting “it” to their full advantage. The local store just had it’s inventory taken, the worst one it’s ever had. the “Shrink” will hopefully get the store manager fired. All because there is no help in the store, they are running on a skeleton crew… all to save money on the payroll. Meanwhile, thieves are stealing everything that’s not spider wrapped or hard tagged. Our economy in this country is basically fucked.
Corporations going after the government, rightfully, but end of the day, pass along those expenses. This is a cat and mouse game of who will raise first. Wal-mart raises prices first, those numbers are true. What they want is to raise last so everyone else absorbs the cost during the interim shift.
Somebody already crunched the numbers on this one. If Walmart had to raise everyone who now makes less than $15.00 hourly to that threshold, the company would collapse.
It’s the math, stupid.
Go ahead and push for 15 an hour. I saw a youtube video of a robot stacking a shelf we’ll see how long you enjoy the higher pay.
“Wal-Mart’s actual profit, according to SEC filings, was only 3 percent of its total revenue. That works out to roughly $6,400 dollars in profit for each of the company’s 2.3 million employees—a profit that could be wiped out with a $15 minimum wage.”
THe employees just ran out of other peoples’ money.
Suppose you buy a $24 shirt and you make $8 an hour. You are wearing 3 hours of your life..
Ricky, do you have a point?
What everyone (those who work, that is. The leeches are another issue)has is a multiple of the hours of effort they put in.
The fact is that every product is made by the effort of people. The contribution of sphincter maggots is miniscule.
As a result it is always going to be largely the case that what you produce and what you net are going to be related.
If you really believe the system is rigged, do the obvious.
Become self employed (as I am), and gain all the ‘advantages’.
You won’t, you are lazy and risk averse.
You should thank your employer for saving you from the fate that is their life.
JohnS,
Why you attack Ricky? You know him? He’s “lazy and risk averse?”
Try to throw a few facts into the discussion.
Vitriol doesn’t get us any closer to a fuller understanding.
I don’t know business stuff – my take is philosophic – Freedom of Contract.
Too much noise muddies the issue.
izlamo delenda est …
Ricky – if you’re making 8 dollars per hour….you might not want to buy 24 dollar shirts.
I make more than $8/hr, and I still by my shirts at Goodwill. Mostly for work, but I don’t like to see useful stuff go unused.