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Low Wages at a Single Wal-Mart Store


jugoso

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"there is just the fact that they are getting rich with the tax money"

Then hate the people giving them the tax money. I don't blame welfare people for getting welfare, I blame the government for giving it to them.

"tax money you refuse to pay"

I pay my taxes, thank you very much.

"while cheering and applauding that you have to feed those they underpay"

The article mentioned how much in Medicaid it cost Wisconsin. I didn't know Medicaid provided food.

And, if I may ask, how many people get Medicaid if they don't get other aid, i.e. food stamps?

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Just saying... The report using information from Medicaid is about employees utilizing the BadgerCare+ program. BC+ is only for families or children and does not make up the entirety of Medicaid in Wisconsin. There are about 3,200 of approximately 30,000 Wi Walmart employees enrolled in BC+. It would be unlikely that of a 300 staff store, every single employee would qualify for BC+, let alone every single one of them actively enrolled. It would be interesting in that report if they included all Medicaid, Wisconsin Well Woman Program, and other state programs. It also would have been interesting if they had included say the top 5 employers with the largest amounts of BC+ enrolled employees for a comparison.

That said, a lot of places, including Walmart pay low wages and a lot of employees find themselves seeking assistance of various kinds. And that just sucks.

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Ah, the whole "hate them because they are successful" thingy. Got it. Won't do it. I refuse to hate something/someone just because they are successful. I'm certain all for-profit business are in business to make a profit. I won't hold them making a profit against them.

Even if it costs YOU 6,000$ a year to make such a profit?? I don´t despise Walmart because they make a profit but for all the loop-holes they use to avoid paying benefits.

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Even if it costs YOU 6,000$ a year to make such a profit?? I don´t despise Walmart because they make a profit but for all the loop-holes they use to avoid paying benefits.

Post #18... Quit ignoring it. It smashes everything you think to pieces.

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Just saying... The report using information from Medicaid is about employees utilizing the BadgerCare+ program. BC+ is only for families or children and does not make up the entirety of Medicaid in Wisconsin. There are about 3,200 of approximately 30,000 Wi Walmart employees enrolled in BC+. It would be unlikely that of a 300 staff store, every single employee would qualify for BC+, let alone every single one of them actively enrolled. It would be interesting in that report if they included all Medicaid, Wisconsin Well Woman Program, and other state programs. It also would have been interesting if they had included say the top 5 employers with the largest amounts of BC+ enrolled employees for a comparison.

That said, a lot of places, including Walmart pay low wages and a lot of employees find themselves seeking assistance of various kinds. And that just sucks.

It is not unique of Wal-Mart, in fact the low wages at the expense of all is very instituted, starting with sweat shops and ending with cheap services at discounters.

Buying cheap at the end comes very expensive.

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Christine Walton has a personal net worth of 16 billion dollars....something to think about.

.

christ!!

I hope she's a'sharin' with zeb & john boy & olivia & ester & john & mary ellen & jim bob & ben & cindy & martha & boone & wade & toni & elizabeth!

(didn't those 'goodnights' take forever??)

:-)

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It is not unique of Wal-Mart, in fact the low wages at the expense of all is very instituted, starting with sweat shops and ending with cheap services at discounters.

Buying cheap at the end comes very expensive.

Oh no, it's not unique to Walmart at all. And that sucks. I was just pointing out this whole thing was based off one tiny piece of information, the BC+ program, and BC+ is only for certain people. It would be far more interesting and comprehensive to the whole picture if they had taken time to extrapolate multiple points of information and used multiple employers to get a better idea on what is going on.

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It is not unique of Wal-Mart, in fact the low wages at the expense of all is very instituted, starting with sweat shops and ending with cheap services at discounters.

Buying cheap at the end comes very expensive.

But what happens when everybody is paid a "living wage"? Things become more expensive and the living wage isn't so live able anymore and we are back to square one.

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But what happens when everybody is paid a "living wage"? Things become more expensive and the living wage isn't so live able anymore and we are back to square one.

Depends on whose dime you are doing it, so far it is on your dime, not on the dime of the corporations causing the problem. Your taxes pay for this. So, again, buying cheap comes expensive. There are losses in the government system dividing that money that you have to pay for too. If these people had decent wages there might be a little less earnings for the company (and given the amount they earn it would not really come to much), but it sure would put a dent into the welfare system.

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Depends on whose dime you are doing it, so far it is on your dime, not on the dime of the corporations causing the problem. Your taxes pay for this. So, again, buying cheap comes expensive. There are losses in the government system dividing that money that you have to pay for too. If these people had decent wages there might be a little less earnings for the company (and given the amount they earn it would not really come to much), but it sure would put a dent into the welfare system.

Yea but we are talking a 1.5 million dollar "tax payer cost" or probably a billion or two combining all Walmart stores which pales in comparison to the 200 billion dollar consumer savings that people of all incomes, but mostly lower, save each year shopping there.

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You would be amazed at how many of us regular associates at wal-mart have degrees. One gal is a M.D. in mathmatics, but is retired so she makes change as a cashier. She is super intelligent, and a hoot to chat with. It is amazing how many are just trying to stretch their social security out. I am leaving retail(thank god) to pursue a career in health care. I used most of my paychecks to pay for college. I'm still not done but on the way to a better future.

*edit for spelling :)

I'm not surprised. Since WalMart is a 24 hr operation it offers a nice variety of shifts for people going to school. That part is awesome. I am surprised that WalMart would pay slave labor wages to their associates. That is sad to me. There are so many drug abusing, homeless people that really take advantage of the system then there are people working hard to make a living and they get poop for pay.

I'd be a grump too.

Good on you though.

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Yea but we are talking a 1.5 million dollar "tax payer cost" or probably a billion or two combining all Walmart stores which pales in comparison to the 200 billion dollar consumer savings that people of all incomes, but mostly lower, save each year shopping there.

Hmmm... so they are privy to the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish? I wonder how they do that with a total cash flow of only 30 15 billion. And there is nothing wrong with selling cheap, there is something wrong with getting back their generosity through the back door out of the same consumer pocket who they promise savings.

Edit, looked in the wrong column, sorry.

Edited by questionmark
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Jugoso, how many anti Walmart threads will you make. This was all settled in the last thread and I'll quote my settling arguments again...

Edit: especially the part that states Walmart saves consumers $200B annually in savings.

Hey F3SS, I hadn´t seen your post # 18 before I had responded to another post. I certainly wouldn´t ignore it.

It´s an awful lot of infomation and I don´t have much time to respond to it all. I will question you on these points

7. Erase the Walmart CEO’s entire salary, and you can raise average hourly wages by just a penny or so.

8. Erase the entire Walton family fortune and you get an average $1/hour boost to Walmart workers.

You do realize that Wal-Mart is an international company, don´t you? Are you also aware that 20% of all Wal-Marts are located in Mexico? The minimum wage down here is about 60 pesos per DAY (about 50 cents US). One of my students works at Walmart and earns less tha 1$ a day. So I´m wondering if the above takes this into consideration? Raising salaries down here by 1$ an hour would mean increasing their pay by about 10 times. That´s something that nobody is expecting or asking for. I have a feeling the calculations above don´t take this into consideration.

They also used to pay the workers down here partially with vouchers redemable only at Wal-Mart stores until the Mexican Supreme court forbid them from doing so.

And I promise to start fewer anti-Walmart threads than pro/anti gun threads! ;)

Edited by jugoso
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Yea but we are talking a 1.5 million dollar "tax payer cost" or probably a billion or two combining all Walmart stores which pales in comparison to the 200 billion dollar consumer savings that people of all incomes, but mostly lower, save each year shopping there.

If you are saying 1.5 million because of the OP... It would be 1.5 alone, it would not tabulate to anything else including all Walmarts. Because that's the outside figure on if every single WI Walmart employee that could be eligible for BC+ were actively enrolled, and no other states have BC+.

That's part of my problem with the whole report- it just does not include enough information, not to address WI alone, and for sure not enough to address the nation as a whole- let alone international Walmart, blech.

And zippo for other top employers, which would be really helpful as well. It's not just Walmart, it's other employers too.

These folks took the most recent state that submitted figures, which was Wisconsin, and took off from there. Imagine if California (one of the higher welfare states) had been the most recent to submit, or Delaware, one of the lower welfare states.

I mean.. look at it in alcohol. Lots of that in Wi :)

30,000 walmart employees at 100 stores of 300 each... 3,000 drink 10 Budweisers a day, and that's confirmed statewide total. Gosh, if you push that out, that means at one store, they could drink 3,000 Buds a day! That could mean billions if you go further! But it really isn't accurate, since some folks don't drink, or drink other beers. The study would mean more if they included all kinds of beer, people who don't drink or drink other various beverages, what is being drunk at the top 5 other employers with confirmed Bud drinking. And it means not much to add to figures for other states that have a lot of no drinking or other beers or alcoholic beverages are more popular- or say Bud was only sold in WI, so there were no totals for other states.

And heck, at 10 beers a day, yeah, alcohol problem. And pointing out Bud drinking only addresses alcoholism in those that drink it, and does not give a clear picture of alcoholism among the populace in general.

Ok, it's an awkward comparison, but the best I could come up with at the moment- didn't think cheese would have made a good comparison.

It sucks all around. But I think it's more useful to use comprehensive studies than to take one piece of data and push it out to alarmist levels that really wouldn't apply.

And jeez F3SS, if you didn't mean 1.5 mil because of the OP.. I'm sorry, I totally ranted off on your comment for no good reason.

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Most hardcore capitalist will tell you, that if your not making enough at Wally World, "either get a higher paying job or get a second job to make up the rest of your needed income." Especially in the case of; "instead of going to the welfare office and getting food stamps to make up the rest."

Anyway, this is what I've heard.

So anybody got a good counter argument against that? Because I haven't found one yet.

Not just small independent business. Fast food restauramts pay minimum wage. Convience stores pay minimum wage. Why aren't people up in arms about them? Why single out Wal-Mart?

Well actually, some fast food restaurants like McDonalds pay a little more. I recall one of my kids starting out around $8 dollars an hour, with her first job at that restaurant. Don't know about the convenience stores though, it would be interesting to collect data across the nation to see what all of their starting pay is. I'd be willing to bet that not all of them start with the minimum wage. I think it has to do with the amount people who are willing and available to work for low wages, like college kids, seniors and so on. If not enough are available or willing, then those places probably start raising their starting pay a little to get applicants.

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Hey F3SS, I hadn´t seen your post # 18 before I had responded to another post. I certainly wouldn´t ignore it.

It´s an awful lot of infomation and I don´t have much time to respond to it all. I will question you on these points

You do realize that Wal-Mart is an international company, don´t you? Are you also aware that 20% of all Wal-Marts are located in Mexico? The minimum wage down here is about 60 pesos per DAY (about 50 cents US). One of my students works at Walmart and earns less tha 1$ a day. So I´m wondering if the above takes this into consideration? Raising salaries down here by 1$ an hour would mean increasing their pay by about 10 times. That´s something that nobody is expecting or asking for. I have a feeling the calculations above don´t take this into consideration.

They also used to pay the workers down here partially with vouchers redemable only at Wal-Mart stores until the Mexican Supreme court forbid them from doing so.

And I promise to start fewer anti-Walmart threads than pro/anti gun threads! ;)

Hey sorry man. I didn't even know you started two threads until I looked back for my posts and saw it was you and... My bad but I think we had this conversation before. I remember some math telling a different story though.

If you are saying 1.5 million because of the OP... It would be 1.5 alone, it would not tabulate to anything else including all Walmarts. Because that's the outside figure on if every single WI Walmart employee that could be eligible for BC+ were actively enrolled, and no other states have BC+.

That's part of my problem with the whole report- it just does not include enough information, not to address WI alone, and for sure not enough to address the nation as a whole- let alone international Walmart, blech.

And zippo for other top employers, which would be really helpful as well. It's not just Walmart, it's other employers too.

These folks took the most recent state that submitted figures, which was Wisconsin, and took off from there. Imagine if California (one of the higher welfare states) had been the most recent to submit, or Delaware, one of the lower welfare states.

I mean.. look at it in alcohol. Lots of that in Wi :)

30,000 walmart employees at 100 stores of 300 each... 3,000 drink 10 Budweisers a day, and that's confirmed statewide total. Gosh, if you push that out, that means at one store, they could drink 3,000 Buds a day! That could mean billions if you go further! But it really isn't accurate, since some folks don't drink, or drink other beers. The study would mean more if they included all kinds of beer, people who don't drink or drink other various beverages, what is being drunk at the top 5 other employers with confirmed Bud drinking. And it means not much to add to figures for other states that have a lot of no drinking or other beers or alcoholic beverages are more popular- or say Bud was only sold in WI, so there were no totals for other states.

And heck, at 10 beers a day, yeah, alcohol problem. And pointing out Bud drinking only addresses alcoholism in those that drink it, and does not give a clear picture of alcoholism among the populace in general.

Ok, it's an awkward comparison, but the best I could come up with at the moment- didn't think cheese would have made a good comparison.

It sucks all around. But I think it's more useful to use comprehensive studies than to take one piece of data and push it out to alarmist levels that really wouldn't apply.

And jeez F3SS, if you didn't mean 1.5 mil because of the OP.. I'm sorry, I totally ranted off on your comment for no good reason.

Yea it came from the op. Where else? And if it doesn't tabulate then it further cements what was said in my post. This thread is about, or I thought it was about a single store. And yes I think you lost me. All I could think about was drinking a ton of beer. It's cool though.

Edited by F3SS
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Not just small independent business. Fast food restauramts pay minimum wage. Convience stores pay minimum wage. Why aren't people up in arms about them? Why single out Wal-Mart?

Where I live neither convience stores or fast food restaurants pay minimum wage. I am not saying that is the case everywhere because I don't know that.

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And, if I may ask, how many people get Medicaid if they don't get other aid, i.e. food stamps?

In my state roughly 70% of families that receive some kind of public assistance receive only medicaid for dependent children. Now, I don't know about single people because in my state you have to be disabled if you do not have dependent children to receive anything other than temporary food stamps which have to be renewed on a month by month basis.

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It is not unique of Wal-Mart, in fact the low wages at the expense of all is very instituted, starting with sweat shops and ending with cheap services at discounters.

Buying cheap at the end comes very expensive.

Yes, it does and in more ways than one. I truthfully have not shopped at Walmart in over 10 years after I saw an offensive commercial and thought I do not need to support a company whose values I do not believe in, especially when there are many other places to shop for the toiletries, paper products, cleaning products, etc as these were the only things I ever bought there. It hasn't hurt me one bit.

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Where I live neither convience stores or fast food restaurants pay minimum wage. I am not saying that is the case everywhere because I don't know that.

They don't here either because no one will take the jobs, even on a two week trial basis with the promise of a fairly hefty wage increase at the end of the two weeks.

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Yes, it does and in more ways than one. I truthfully have not shopped at Walmart in over 10 years after I saw an offensive commercial and thought I do not need to support a company whose values I do not believe in, especially when there are many other places to shop for the toiletries, paper products, cleaning products, etc as these were the only things I ever bought there. It hasn't hurt me one bit.

I looked into places like Family Dollar, Dollar General Stores and Big Lots. The only problem was when it comes to wages, benefits and profits...they didn't seem to be any better in the long run than Walmart, but on a slightly smaller scale.

We can preach about not buying things made in sweat shops or quality and all that, but really...if you want to buy Charmin toilet paper does it matter where you get the best bargain when it comes right down to it?

Edited by Michelle
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In 1950 the minimum wage was $0.75, that would be $28.56 (in 2010). 90% of Americans make less than this. The problem is plain old greed by the business people in the world today. They could give a *%#$ less if their employees make less than cost of living as long as they can buy their yachts and summer homes on the beach.

There would be little need of gov't help if corporations paid the heart and souls of the companies what they are worth.

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In 1950 the minimum wage was $0.75, that would be $28.56 (in 2010). 90% of Americans make less than this. The problem is plain old greed by the business people in the world today. They could give a *%#$ less if their employees make less than cost of living as long as they can buy their yachts and summer homes on the beach.

There would be little need of gov't help if corporations paid the heart and souls of the companies what they are worth.

GOV intervention is the problem.. not corporations.

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I don't understand why America doesn't have a higher minimum wage. It works in Australia, albeit our products are more expensive as a result.

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