Bet you money they’ll just make all of those same poorly paid employees move to external contract positions. Or find some other BS loop hole.
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We’re there, with <3% unemployment. Yet wages are still stagnant. Is the Invisible Hand on extended vacation?
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Yeah, no. I’d have to see some serious data collected and analyzed before I can swallow that statement. Please cite references for your claim.
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Their wealth isn’t solely from Walmart profits, but the value of stock (which isn’t spendable until sold, but good for collateral for loans and such), as well as various investments.
At any rate, we would need to figure out the executive pay is, determine what one deems “excessive” and then see how much more that would add to the pile. Even if we add a few billion from the high level executives, that goes away quick when split among over 2.3 million workers.
Again, I am not saying these things aren’t contributors to the situation, just only cutting executive wages alone isn’t going to fix the issue. You can also add the whole “share holder model” (which most full time employees ARE shareholders, if a minor amount) as adding to the problem as some of the profits are given to them. (Though Walmart does have a bonus program for employees.)
I don’t think I am underestimating. I know Walmart is terrified of a unionized work force. I am saying gov. benefits are an appeasement for that work force. Walmart even has programs to help their workers get those benefits! They are used as a counter argument and a path away from unionization. If those were gone, the willingness of the workers to Unionize would skyrocket.
Again, turn of the century we literally had people getting beaten up and/or killed over labor reform. I am acknowledging propaganda and legislation has hampered unionized labored and demonized it. But as bad as things are now, they aren’t nearly as bad as when the original labor movement started. If they could overcome those obstacles, we could over come similar ones today. To say differently is rather defeatist and underestimates the human spirit when pushed to far.
The problem, I see, is they haven’t been pushed far enough for gross, quick change. But there have been small pushes. Hell Walmart is raising their wages from $9 to $11. Disney is a huge employer at their parks and is raising their wages. Progress is being made in some areas, even if it isn’t enough or fast enough.
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Maybe they can take some of that bullshit money and reinvest in their work force instead of using it to buy yet more paintings that they don’t need.
Jesus christ, people are watching their kids go hungry, so the Walton family can have a jet setting lifestyle.
This has got to change, it just has to. We need to stop pretending that the poor are to blame there. They’re not.
This is his salary, BTW:
$16,826.92 an hour. There are people who do not make that in a year. It’s obscene.
It’s not just about walmart, it’s about a decades long set of tactics by the right to undermine worker protections won by unions in the postwar period. They used racism, sexism, legal changes to worker/union protections, and out right lies to do that.
And Sanders is specifically trying to address that. Reagan harped on about his racist fantasy of the welfare queen, but how many dollars are wasted propping up companies that refuse to support their work force.
No, but they have gotten measurable worse than they were at mid-20th century. I’m not being defeatist here by pointing out reality. I’m arguing that we need strong counter measures, which Sanders is proposing in this legislation. We also need to acknowledge that people’s lives hang in the balance here, their jobs and livelihood. It’s far harder to organize when you have to worry about putting food on the table.
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I heard about WinCo being all altruistic. However, I approached them for a job after I left the military. (I had finished my grad degree, but I was having a severely hard time translating my experience into the civilian workforce.
So, I see a WinCo sign that says “Now hiring veterans” and check it out. Minimum wage. That was their offer. With a raise after one year.
People can say I’m a choosy beggar, but that is offensive. Offering a veteran minimum wage means that you have zero value for any of their experience. All they want is disciplined minions to stock their stores.
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I’m not saying WinCo is perfect. Your experience shows that the company can be very similar to the Safeway down the street. What I do know from talking with employees there is that they seem pretty happy. There may be a big difference between initial pay and what employees with longevity get paid. After all, the “they” and “them” are the employees themselves.
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I agree it’s obscene, but his salary would give people an extra $15 a year.
Per my first post, I actually can’t fault this idea. My whole point that the gov. benefits are enabling lower wages would be offset by this sort of thing.
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…which is why you can’t fix this sort of shit with just paternalistic legislation.
The only solution to wage exploitation is an empowered working class.
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Was it a job in which military experience was relevant?
If not, then veterans should be getting the exact same pay as any other worker. Automatic privilege for veterans is pure bullshit militarism.
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100%. And unions need to be more of a thing for more jobs
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It doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but here’s my question. Why approach this from the Company side of things instead of the individual. You could alternately just tax high income individuals. Somehow that seems much more direct to me.
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I don’t think you have to worry about the Walton’s wealth. Six family members are on the Forbes list of richest Americans. I think they can afford to pay their workers enough that I don’t have to pay a larger tax bill to support the dole their workers receive.
How sad is it that one of the Walmart stores held a charity food drive for their fellow workers?
This is why I will not patronize Walmart in any way, shape or form.
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FTFY. These are not people who can be hurt by a 20% pay cut.
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But he’s not the only one making such an obscene salary at the top level. It’s about an entire class of people who feel entitled to live off the labor of others, no matter what.
Can you clarify what you mean by offset? As I understand it, he’s hoping to put pressure on companies to raise wages. And if they whine that they can’t afford it, maybe they don’t need to be in business, because clearly they can’t run them responsibly.
I’m just full of rage today… Maybe I need to go do death metal karaoke?
True.
Oh, and…
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Ok that sentence wasn’t very clear. I think it was one of my distracted moments.
People need X amount to live, right? I mean a minimum amount for the minimal amount of stuff and some Redbox. If they can get it all from their job? Great. If they they get it through a combo of their job and benefits, then ok. That person is relatively appeased.
But their employer arguably is able to keep the wage so low because they know they can get some assistance that will cover the gap. So I actually agree with Sanders that anyone with a full time job on assistance - it is basically corporate welfare.
is touring again. He hooked up with Sascha Grey for a single even (haven’t heard it). This time with Killing Joke, though they aren’t with him at my show. I think that he is technically opening for them, but then he is hitting more places on the side. But it looks like his jaunt into the south is kinda slim.
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There also is no labor glut depressing wages. Its money is just being locked up at the top because employers can get away with paying less. As I stated before, the lack of bargaining power of employees, lack of enforcement of labor laws, and diminished power of organized labor created the situation.
Anyone using the “immigrants are taking our jobs and lowering wages” argument is full of shit.
Its not the 19th Century anymore where the nation had a constant hunger for industrial labor. We can’t import blue collar labor by the boatload anymore. Illegal aliens are filling niches where citizens don’t want to work (or no longer pay living wages) and legal immigrants are either filling in white collar positions or expanding the economy with foreign investment, widening markets and businesses of their own.
Also anyone who says Stephen Miller is addressing a need of our nation needs their head fixed. That asshole is merely implementing a white supremacist agenda using government resources.
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I do have to bring up because I feel stupid for not thinking of it earlier. While McMullin, the CEO of Walmart made about 22 million in a year. The Walton family has made $12.7 billion in a day. Furthermore, the big problem is wealth inequality rather than income inequality. Again, there would be less of a need for government assistance if employers paid their employees a reasonable wage. Wages are low because employers know you need a job so they pay you what they want. The supply and demand curves for labor are skewed because employers, as I said before, have an oligopoly on labor. Your claim about government assistance is wrong.
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Don’t you think that Sanders’s bill would incentivize corporations to directly pay their employees more?
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Exactly right. This is basically a minimum wage increase in disguise, and I heartily support it.
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