A Much Needed Boost to the Economy of Urban America
'Higher wages, better benefits and more full-time jobs at Wal-Mart’s 4,000 stores across the country would have a broad-based beneficial economic impact. Improved wages and benefits for Wal-Mart workers would make them less reliant on public assistance, help end the enormous taxpayer subsidy of the world’s largest retailer, which is owned the country’s richest family, and give a much needed boost to the economy of urban America.
'Wal-Mart workers cannot rely on the good intentions of management to provide better jobs and benefits. The report demonstrating the enormous cost to taxpayers of Wal-Mart’s low-road strategies was a follow-up to a 2004 report that reached exactly the same conclusions. Nothing has changed in the intervening years, except that Wal-Mart has continued to retaliate against workers who speak up against poverty wages and poor working conditions. The situation of Wal-Mart workers, who according to a Bloomberg study are paid an average of $8.81 per hour, demonstrates the need for a significant increase in the federal minimum wage. And while the current strikes are not over issues of unionization, it is only with a union that Wal-Mart workers will ultimately secure good jobs and respect at work.'
John Logan, Professor and Director of
Labor and Employment Studies at
San Francisco State University