Walmart Protests and Sit down Protest for Higher Wages.

Oh Gamma, you've been drinking the corporate kool aid! Great responses below, I hope you take them to heart.

Most of the people are not allowed to work full time and benefits are not offered to many or are too expensive. Most make at or below minimum wage.

There was a lady whose line I used to get in because she was fast who quit about a month ago. She told me she had given them 8 years of her life with nothing to show for it. She had been promised full-time work and benefits and never got them. She finally found a full time job else where so that day I was there was her last day and she was so excited. I hated to see her leave and wished her well.

If you are content with working part-time and receiving low pay it is a good place to work but if you want more it's not.

Here's the thing. Each and every Walmart in existence costs the community it is in over $900K per year. Yes, you read that right. They do not pay a living wage, so the vast majority of their people qualify for all kinds of government assistance. Basically, what Walmart is doing is socializing their expenses, and privatizing their profit. Are you okay with socialism, as long as it's helping Walmart? Yeah, I didn't think so.

As a business owner myself, I know that my profits are due to my people. As such, I pay them a living wage and I provide them with benefits. Even my part-time college student who does data entry for me makes $15/hr. Why would I do that, rather than keeping all of the legally allowable profits for myself? Because I have integrity, that's why. I'd be ashamed if my employees had to go apply for food stamps, Medi-Cal, and housing assistance because I was too cheap to pay them a basic living wage. And you know what? In exchange for $15/hr, even my entry-level employees love to come to work. They work hard, we have great productivity, and our employees do not take their jobs for granted. It's a win-win. They can pay their rent and buy groceries as well as a few extras, I can count on them to do a great job. This is not a difficult business model, I promise you. And best of all, *I* am not socializing my expenses and expecting taxpayers to pick up the tab for things I am responsible for as an employer. I am here to strengthen my community, not tear it down. It really is that simple.

ETA: Gamma G, let me get this straight. You're saying that I am no better than Walmart (even though my entry-level part-time employee makes 140% of what a Walmart employee would) because IF my college intern were financially independent of her parents (she is not), and IF she worked less than 30 hours per week (it's her choice; if she wanted full-time, she would have it!), then she would qualify for food stamps? Is that REALLY your position? You understand how ridiculous that sounds, right?

You might have known a few people who made above minimum wage at Walmart, but that is the rare case indeed. Only a few can work their way up to management level - and they are paid to manage the 150 other people in the store who are making $8 an hour! Management positions are limited, by sheer mathematics. Walmart and similar stores have many many part time workers (specifically so the company does not have to pay benefits), and most employees make $8 an hour. Even at 40 hours, the qualify for benefits such as food stamps. ($8 an hour times 40 hours = $320 a week, or $16,640 a year, which is below the poverty level, and out of this working families have to pay day care and income taxes.

Walmart itself puts out many collection bins so that the CUSTOMERS can supplement with food and toiletries for "Walmart associates in need" as the signs say. So Walmart is publicly advertising that their workers cannot survive on their pay and occasional benefits, and asking the public to support them.

Minimum wages was instituted many decades ago through the work of unions which, by the way, used the power of numbers to strike if necessary. Striking is difficult because the workers lose the pay for that day. But if the original minimum wage had been raised to keep pace with inflation, it would be $50 an hour today, according to economists. Just as you are struggling on SSDI that doesn't keep pace with inflation, people working for minimum wage struggle.

Raising the minimum wage doesn't hurt you. Corporations try to tell you that their only option is to raise prices, hurting the consumer. But that's not true. Income inequality has grown steadily over the past 30 years - corporate executives make far more than their workers (proportionally) than ever before. If the owners and top executives weren't making millions in salary and bonuses, and if they were paying reasonable taxes (not the little amount that tax loopholes allow), you'd see a huge turnaround.

And it's not just Walmart - it's McDonald's and Burger King, and the food service industry that pays $2-3 an hour and makes people rely on tips, which passes the expense on to the consumer.

If people would spend just 10% of their purchasing power at small, independent businesses, that money would go back into the economy. If big corporations paid $10 or $15 an hour to real people, those people are going to spend the money for food and clothing and other things that, again, put it right back into the economy instead of into the pockets of the ultra rich.

Don't believe what the big business owners are telling you. Get the facts. You'll be horrified, and you will never shop in those stores again. You'll take your money elsewhere because it's the right thing to do. Too many people complain about this situation but then say, "Well, I can't afford to shop elsewhere" and they cave in. Truthfully, you can't afford NOT to shop with small vendors.

There are lots and lots of statistics out there on how much better off the middle class would be if the minimum wage was AT LEAST brought back up proportionately to where it was IN THE 60's!!!!

Here is the latest article on why we have no middle class due to low wages and astronomical profits for the people at the top.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/middle-class-can...

Wal Mart isn't the only mega-business underpaying it's employees (within the confines of the law though), but it's the biggest. The droves of their employees ON GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE to get by on their wages while the execs rake in more profit each year are well documented as well.

I also recommend you read "Nickel and Dimed" to see the livability of low-paying jobs. Even ones that pay slightly higher than our outdated minimum wage are not such that people can lead healthy, stable lives in exchange for their full-time hard work.

Wal Mart isn't the only problem. The customers keeping them and other businesses like them are. If people would grow backbones, boycott bad practices, and use their votes for change, we could get America's work force back to what it once was. When people could actually live on minimum wage, and there was no Wal Mart.

I scraped by on low wages all through my 20's working 2-3 jobs at times. I was single and healthy. Older people with children should not be living that way after years of hard work. Your friends who shot up the Wal Mart ladder to high paying jobs are very small exceptions to what that corporation has to offer. I have older friends in my town who have worked in Wal Mart for yeeeears with much different stories.

Google "why minimum wage should be raised" and you'll see hundreds of articles with figures.

Google "Why minimum wage should not be raised" and you'll see business owners contesting that theory and saying it will limit job growth.

You have to pick who to believe.

While I respect your willingness to work, and appreciation for any dollar earned, have you considered the fact that this is exactly how you "race to the bottom"? Why should only the people at the top get the benefits of labor? Shouldn't the workers actually get something useful, too? Like a reasonable, liveable wage? I do not shop at Walmart for this very reason. My tax dollars already supports their profits by subsidizing their employee benefits. Why on earth would I allow them to profit from my consumer purchases, too?

My son works for walmart. He works his butt off. And brings home a check every 2 weeks for about $600 that is for 80 solid hours of work. They pay him $8 and hour. which is barely minimum wage here. He hates it but it is a solid job right now while he finishes school. if he was having to live on his own it would not be a living wage.

ETA #6: As to dining out? Since you asked...As a rule, we spend money at places that our beliefs align. Not always, but we don't eat a lot of the junk you listed. We TRY to patronize local small businesses, not large chains.With money so tight, wondering why you do or how you can?
Sorry but if your community is lacking other shopping options? You can thank Walmart. Which is exactly the way they like it. Few other options--for jobs OR consumers.Thanks for proving the point!

ETA #5: your wage computations are inaccurate. 22 days per month (standard average) x 12. And why are you equating good stamps with the poverty line? Not the same thing. Many people ABOVE the poverty line qualify for food assistance all across the country. Apples and oranges.
Not sure why you are focusing on O. small business that willingly pays MORE than min wage plus Benefits?

ETA #4 Gamma: Google "US Poverty levels." It's not hard to find! She said that EVEN her PT data entry employee makes $15/hr. That implies O. PT employee, along with all of the other FT employees.

ETA#3 HellOnHeel's $15 per hour for her FT employees puts them at over 30K per year. She's got integrity.

ETA #2: if you believe you can obtain the lowest prices always at Walmart, you are mistaken. There are tons of websites detailing the MYTH of Walmart vs. Target. It's a ruse, a lie, a misconception. People (steeple) but it lock, stock and barrel without ever questioning it.
I shop sales at Target and my locally owned grocery store, ALDI and Trader Joes.

ETA: FYI, poverty line for a US family of 3? (Think single mom, 2 kids) is $19,790. Well above a 15K FT minimum wage job.

I think that corporations (especially the largest employer in the country) should pay a living wage. Minimum wage has not been raised since 2009.
The cost of living has increased 11% since then.

Walmart is known for providing new employees with forms for good stamps and government healthcare because they know they don't pay a living wage. Few Walmart workers are FT with benefits.

The idea of a "minimum wage job" USED to be that someone could get a minimum wage job and EXIST-you know, cover rent, food, electric, etc. currently, a husband AND a wife both working minimum wage FT jobs would be living below the poverty line.

Low minimum wage jobs hurt women and children.
Women make up 75% of the 10 lowest paid occupations and they are 60% of the minimum wage earners--most are not teens or spouses, many are breadwinners in a single parent household.

Hey--I'm all for making a profit--just not on the backs of disadvantaged women, decreasing their basic living options sociology-economically.

Walmart has been the death fell for millions of small businesses. They are poison for any community, yet people still head there like sheep.

Walmart workers don't typically make above minimum wage.
Their environmental policies stink.
They discriminate against women and minorities.
As a trend, corporations are paying less and less revenue do to tax loopholes. In 1952, corporations income tax was 33% of all federal tax revenue. Today? 9%. Is it any wonder we have a deficit? Who pays the difference? People like me that don't receive a dime of government aid.

IMO, you can't afford TO shop at a place like WalMart.

How much do you make? Minimum wage? Do you work!
Does your husband? How about the grandkids parents?

Gamma G you've already gotten a lot of good responses. The issue is that the vast majority of Wal-Mart employees are low-wage earners who still qualify for government assistance. Wal-Mart employees, by and large, are the working poor. Sure, Wal-Mart offers some benefits, but the employees can't afford them and why would they bother paying for health insurance when their incomes are low enough that they qualify for subsidized insurance through their state anyway?

Wal-Mart has the ability to shoulder more of the financial burden of their employees...instead of paying them as little as possible and letting government benefits make up the rest, they should reach into their own pockets, pay a living wage, and offer benefits that are more attractive than being on public medical insurance.

They're not some small mom-and-pop store or restaurant trying to balance their books and struggling to pay employees a decent wage and still make enough to stay in business. They are the largest retailer in the world, they can certainly afford to treat their employees better and dip into their own pockets and not ours.

If your friends are doing so well at Walmart, they were the "chosen ones" in that store. Walmart has its own agenda in how they move people up the ladder. It does not matter how many apply for the job, the chosen ones get the job.

I did a paper in college on the subject and my instructor stated that the information supplied was an eye opener for him about Walmart's ways. So no, it is not the norm for people to move up. Many are pushed out as they get to the 39th hour of work for the week. They will run you crazy just before Christmas and let you go after.

The days of yesteryear and the way thing were run are gone. We now have a new America and we are all part of it - the good, ugly and bad.

Perhaps we will one day be able to take care of our own on our own. But some of us do need help. Another soapbox. Enough.

the other S.

PS If the store manager wants another person of higher pay in, three or four lower paid people are let go. It's all about the bottom line. Don't go over that amount or there is hell to pay as the manager.

The rosy picture Walmart paints on the TV ads is not the real Walmart. Yes, the store has been in major legal lawsuits that are class action. So the saying about not judge a book by its cover goes to Walmart or as my husband calls it "Chinamart".

I refuse to shop at Walmart because their workers need public funds. Talk about slimy business practices. That company has mastered profit over humanity.

I don't get why the rich/poor gap in this country doesnt have us all protesting. We are becoming an oligarchy of sorts, and everyone focuses on the poor, not the many ways the wealthy skip income tax, leaving the burden to an almost nonexistent middle. If we let the "rulers" convince us that it's the workers fault, then we all will soon be nothing more than peasants, and trust me, we are heading in that direction.

I voted for a higher minimum wage. I think wages should be living wages. Prices don't go up because of the minimum wage, prices go up because companies are always seeking greater profits. That isn't going to stop. The question is, what can we do to help people make those increased bills; the questions is, what responsibilities do we have to each other as a community; the question is, what responsibilities do companies have.

As a society we seem to be entering an interesting time. We can either let the warped ideology convince us the problem is with the working man-and this includes the middle I might add,-or with the system.

It is near the end of times for capital. We are all going to have to pick sides in this battle, and since I don't live in a gated community in a multi-million dollar house, I strongly believe my side was picked for me. I'm good with that, long-live Marx. Just wait and see, he is going to be proven right. All signs point to this.

The long and the short of it is that it doesn't matter what any of us think. We aren't in charge, and making matters worse, the Media serves as an ideological arm too convince us of whatever those with power think we should do.

The minimum wage is a truly comical amount, and when the bulk of workers at McDonald's aren't teenagers but adults trying to support families, we really should take a giant pause. There aren't enough jobs to truly support families. So what now?

Where did you get the idea that most Walmart employees make double the minimum wage?

Walmart has a reputation for treating their employees very badly.
There have been class action suits and many out of court settlements for past issues and I think they operate right on the line of what is legal and frequently cross the line.
There's a big difference between management and the people they manage.
I'm glad your friends are doing well working there but I think they are the exception and not the rule.
I side with the employees in this case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Walmart

As far as minimum wage goes - everything goes up whether minimum wage rises or not.
Raising it it always a slow feeble attempt to catch up rather than keeping people ahead of the curve.
If you are on a fixed income, you pretty much automatically lose buying power over time.

I agree with you that many people aren't making enough to live on due to high costs of living, however I don't think it would get worse if the minimum wage went up. I agree with Amy J and Julie G that raising the minimum wage would help a lot of people. You know there's something wrong in the system when people on public assistance do the math and figure out that if they take a minimum wage job, they're going to end up living worse because they will lose subsidized housing and healthcare.

I have to ask WHO at Walmart is earning twice the minimum wage. It sure isn't the stockers. My husband started working there Aug 1 fulltime and he makes $7.95 an hour--and that's an additional 50 cents per hour because he's on the night shift, otherwise it would be $7.45 an hour. As for the benefits, they are pretty limited and he won't even qualify for them until he completes a full year. Right now, he is categorized as a 'part-time employee working full-time hours', whatever that mean.

Don't get me wrong--we are incredibly grateful that after over 10 years of part-time jobs and nothing in his field (accounting), he finally has full-time work. The supervisors seem to be pretty decent to him and the corporation did give him a nice discount card for working a 13 hour shift from Thanksgiving evening until Black Friday morning. Wal-Mart isn't the Evil Empire as I used to think. However, they're no angels either.

I have always thought of Wal-Mart jobs as part-time or like a stepping stone to a better job somewhere else (cashiering, greeting, stocking, etc.). I am sure that minimum wage is different in each state, I do know that living in Florida is much less expensive then living in California and so the pay will be lower as well.

I don't think someone flipping burgers or working the cash reregister should be making $15. an hour since that will then raise the cost of everything else and take away some of the jobs then we are back to square one. These are not career jobs, they are jobs you have while working toward something else.

There are so many labor jobs available out there yet no one seems to want those jobs. Is it because they will never become millionaires doing them? Or because Americans have become lazy and want top dollar for minimum work?

There are also so many ways for people to get an education, even if they have to pay their own way or have the employer help pay (many companies do this). I think the biggest problem in this country is that everyone wants everything that is not a necessity (cell phone, internet, SUV's or expensive cars, big homes).

Most Americans now a days don't truly understand what its like to be poor. Most people who were alive before the 80's would understand this. I grew up very poor and worked hard all my life toward something better. I never expected anything to be handed to me or for it to be easy.

I get tired of some people complaining about what they don't have and it is usually the extras in life. The things you can live without. I also see so many wanting to live beyond their means and that's where the problem lies.

I think minimum wage jobs are for those who only want part time work or teens who are not supporting a family. No one should be making minimum wage jobs into their career. Just as people shouldn't make getting welfare into a career.

If Americans want better jobs then Americans need to get on the government about letting companies hire offshore people. There needs to be some kind of compromise with the taxes of businesses to get them to stay and to be able to pay the employees better.

Here's what Walmart costs us all. http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/repor...

What Hell On Heels said.

Part of the money equation for pay is based on the skills necessary to do the job, the skills that you have, and the supply and demand of workers in the labor market. It also depends on the value of what you produce and how much income you generate for a company. When there are lots of people unemployed, there is always someone who will take a job, so wages are generally low. They can replace one worker with another with relative ease and little training. A company does not owe you $15 an hour because that is what you want to make or what you need to live on. There are several companies that are thriving because they attract better (more skilled, more reliable, more productive) employees and pay a much higher wage-- like Costco, Trader Joe's). Perhaps other companies should look into that. When the cost of the employees pay + benefits (company share of health insurance, worker's comp, social security taxes, pension expenses, unemployment insurance and other required employee related expenses) become higher than what that company can pay, then they outsource the jobs or reduce the workforce.

P.S. Gamma G - I hate to think about you sitting cold in your house with your thermostat set on 62. Please be careful with the space heaters. They are the cause of many house fires. You might also look into this program offered by the state of Oklahoma to heat your home more effectively at lower cost. For more information on the Oklahoma Weatherization Assistance Program, please visit:
http://www.okcommerce.gov/index.php?option=com_content&am...
To speak with someone regarding the Weatherization Assistance Program, please contact Kathy McLaughlin by calling toll-free at:
1-800-879-6552. That was from their website.
Have a blessed Christmas.

Another big debate I heard for a while was where McDonald's workers were wanting to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour......

Heck, I work as a teacher aide in a middle school and make less than that! And... for 3 years, we had no pay increase due to budget cuts......

Long ago, places like McDonald's were STARTER jobs for high school kids... not permanent jobs for adults trying to make a living wage.......

I am concerned that if minimum wage goes up drastically, all it will do is start a cycle of inflation...... if the businesses like McDonald's has to pay drastically higher wages, then their costs of having a business goes up, and they have to charge higher prices..... which thus negates the increase in minimum wage..... much like what you have seen with your husband's SSDI...

Housing expenses have gotten so high around here, that it is very tough for a young couple making little more than minimum pay to make it on their own... and add in other expenses, and it is tough to start out these days.... add in costs of insurance, etc.....

I'm not sure what the solution is.....

Your assumption is that people who are earning minimum wage work 40 hours a week. In actuality most people who are working for corporations like McDonalds, Walmart and others are only given between 20-30 hours a week. This way the company doesn't have to provide healthcare in many cases.

Corporations have a responsiblity to their shareholders to provide the highest dividends possible. A way to make that happen is to reduce employee costs. It's a balancing act.

I believe the shift in this country is when we went from a nation that produced to a nation that consumes. I believe that if you want to change or alter your lot in this world begin to produce instead of consume. Create a business, a product, an idea which can create opportunities for earning income not just for yourself but for those that are willing to build the dream with you.

Examples: George Lucas creating Lucas Films. Tyler Perry creating Tyler Perry Studios. Steve Jobs creator of Apple.

Note they didn't start out big but grew big. They put in the hard work and have been able to help many along the way. Perhaps if more people were of this mind instead of the get a job mind, there would be a better shift in this country.

My SIL won't even shop at Wal-Mart because of the way she feels they treat employees. I have two nieces who work for WalMart and they are happy with their jobs. They are paid regularly, and have health, dental and vision insurance. Although they work most holidays, they do get holiday pay. They also get paid vacations and sick time. And WalMart also GUARANTEES jobs for vets as long as they meet the qualifications for the job. I don't know any other employer that does that. So, no I don't see why these employees are so unhappy. I think they don't know how good they really have it. Let them quit - there are hundreds of people who would happily take their place!