Wal-Mart Relies On Taxpayers To Subsidize Low Wages

From Business Insider

From "The no-shit Sherlock" Department:

by Emily Coy

It isn't breaking news that many Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) employees are dissatisfied with their current wage levels, as it was only late last year that members of OUR Walmart, a union-backed worker group, chose Black Friday to walk off the job and campaign for their rights.

Similarly, earlier in May, that same group announced its plans to meet in Bentonville, Arkansas, on the day of Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting, and campaign for a greater number of full-time jobs with predictable schedules and wages that could help them provide for their families.

A new report, however, illuminates that Wal-Mart employees might not be the only ones paying the price for their low wages. Taxpayers, too, may have a reason to take a stand.

According to The Huffington Post, Congressional Democrats released a study Thursday that demonstrated how Wal-Mart's wages are so low that many of its workers must rely on food stamps and other government aid programs, costing taxpayers as much as $900,0000 at just one Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin.

The report, "The Low-Wage Drag on Our Economy," was produced by Democrats with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

It explains that it chose Wisconsin as its state of study because of its data being the most recent, allowing the study to employ the state's Medicaid data to discern the annual cost taxpayers pay in order to provide the food stamp and publicly subsidized health care programs to those Supercenter workers who require it.

Wal-Mart has long been criticized for its pattern of offering wages that force its workers to take advantage of public-assistance programs. This recent study argues that the criticism is warranted. The company had more workers enrolled in the state's public health care program in last year's last quarter than any other employer.