As Black Friday protests near, a new report reveals Walmart can raise employee wages without costing consumers a dime.
Black Friday is the day when many Americans find refuge in the
corporations that squeeze them out of the middle class. Black Friday
deals, which offer you that one-day opportunity to get the most bang for
your small buck, is good enough to wait in line for at dawn or even
leave Thanksgiving dinner early — this year as early as 6pm.
That’s
why it’s tricky for corporations’ financially burdened workforce to ask
consumers not to shop in the same stores that help keep many of them
destitute, which is what Walmart workers at 1,500 stores will be doing
this Black Friday. After all, when you’re left fighting over crumbs,
it’s difficult to realize that Walmart snuck off with the whole pie.
Walmart
and its supporters boast that if the corporation were to pay its
workers more, it would have to raise prices for consumers. A few months
ago, when Walmart refused to open three stores in Washington, D.C. if
proposed living-wage legislation passed, a general manager
lamented that paying its workers a living wage “would result in fewer jobs, higher prices and fewer total retail options.”
But a new
report
by public policy organization Demos reveals that Walmart could raise
its workers' wages without costing consumers a dime. The report, titled
“A Higher Wage is Possible: How Walmart Can Invest in Its Workforce
Without Costing Customers a Dime,” found that Walmart could raise wages
by $5.83 per hour without raising prices. The report revealed that
Walmart spends $7.6 billion annually buying back shares of its own
stock. Amy Traub, co-author of the report, said share buybacks are “Wall
Street financial maneuvers” that are unproductive, and often fail, in
the long run, its goal of making its shares worth more. The report
quotes a
Wall Street Journalbusiness analyst, who wrote:
The
evidence overwhelmingly shows that heavy buyback companies usually
create less value for shareholders over time… Many managements have
become so infatuated with how buybacks increase earnings per share that
these distributions are crowding out sound business investments that
create more value over time.
Traub said that if Walmart reinvested
these billions of dollars in its workforce instead, it would be
beneficial to its workers as well to as the economy as a whole.
The
Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, is the richest family in
the world with a net worth of $144.7 billion — equal to the wealth of 42
percent of Americans. Through share buybacks, the heirs continue to
consolidate ownership of the corporation, now owning more than 50
percent of its shares. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, and the
largest private employer in the United States, brings in $17 billion
annually.
Meanwhile, it’s estimated that Walmart workers make, on
average, around $9 per hour. Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon boasted at a
conference that 475,000 of its 1.3 million workers get paid more than
$25,000, which was taken to mean that the other two-thirds of employees
make less. Assuming that Walmart workers make $9.06 per hour, the
industry median for low-wage employees of large retailers, the Demos
report states that the company could hike pay to $14.89 per hour:
At
this rate, any worker placed on the schedule for more than 32 hours a
week would bring home $25,000 a year — an important accomplishment in an
industry where nearly a third of part-time employees say that they
would like to work full-time if their employer would allow them. …
Walmart’s workers and their families would clearly be the biggest
beneficiaries of a wage increase, but greater investment in the
workforces would benefit the company as well.
And the company could use some help. Walmart has recently seen
decreased sales for its third straight quarter. The report states:
According
to media reports, U.S. consumers have avoided Walmart’s stores because
they are disorganized and shoppers cannot find the items they seek on
Walmart’s shelves. There were too few employees in the stores — or the
workers who were present were too inexperienced — to keep items in stock
on the shelves. In February, leaked internal emails from Walmart’s
corporate offices lamented that ‘sales are a total disaster,’ and
wondered, ‘Where are all the customers? And where’s their money?’
The
report states that higher wages would encourage Walmart workers to stay
with the company, gaining experience to be more helpful to customers.
Walmart has high employee turnover, with about 500,000 Walmart employees
leaving the company every year. Walmart, however, blames its workers
for low sales, in an effort to further normalize their poor working
conditions. Evelin Cruz, a member of OUR Walmart, a coalition of former
and current Walmart workers standing up for better conditions, went on
strike to speak out about her concerns and was arrested for blocking a
street in Los Angeles. She
said in an interview:
At
Walmart on a daily basis they have morning, afternoon and evening
meetings and at the meetings they give you those sales reports. They
tell us, ‘Our customer counts are down or our sales are bad. Our hours
are not going to be the greatest and there’s going to be so many cuts.’
They make sure you know you’re very lucky to get the hours that you get.
And then, once in a while they throw in, ‘We have so many people
applying for every position out there,’ to make you know that you’re
easily replaceable. And they have been holding captive audience
meetings, they say, ‘We didn’t ask you to come work for us, you came to
us asking for a job.’
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon
recently said shrinking sales are due to customers’ declining income
while costs of goods are increasing. But he failed to grasp that
low-paying companies like Walmart cause this decreased income across the
board, as it sets the standard. Walmart workers are paid so low and
rely so much on government assistance, a recent
report found that one Walmart store costs taxpayers $900,000 in federal subsidies.
Robert Reich, former U.S. labor secretary,
has said:
“Walmart is so huge that a wage boost at Walmart would ripple through
the entire economy, putting more money in the pockets of low-wage
workers. This would help boost the entire economy — including Walmart’s
own sales.”
The new report now adds to the existing evidence that
Walmart’s plan to pit low-wage workers against low-wage consumers falls
short. Walmart’s myths and manipulations are starting to unravel as
workers continue to expose
the truth about Walmart’s working conditions. On Black Friday, these
empowered workers will flip the script on Walmart’s motto “Save money.
Live better” and show that the only way they can live better is by
speaking out, sharing the truth with consumers, and getting them to
stand with them in solidarity.
Today is - Day With(Out) Art Day
by 
Former
model Lauren Bacall was known as "The Windmill" and "The Pinwheel." Of
course, her husband, Humphrey Bogart always called her "Baby."
Clerow
Wilson was given the name "Flip" while he was serving in the U.S. Air
Force. "He flippeth his lid," one of the guys in the barracks once said.
The name stuck. 
Joan Crawford called Spencer Tracy "Slug." She called her onetime husband Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. "Dodo."
