Buy in large and bulk retailers seem to be in style these days. Wal-Mart is no exception. I’ve heard stories of protest over one company joining the local economic circle being protested. One of these companies is Wal-Mart.
For support of mom and pop shops, Wal-Mart’s openings have been disputed in many areas. Some feel they are just what the government ordered, while others have praised their opening. When I lived in Louisiana, the opening of a local Wal-Mart meant things were on the up and up. Business was booming and if a Wal-Mart was suggested, it meant that all your economic numbers were on the increase. But over the years and across state borders, this outlook has changed.
Many see the opening of a Wal-Mart as the end of all business. Local family owned industries were looked at as if they were set to be closed and Wal-Mart was the reason to blame. But upon further analysis of the infographic below, it made me wonder whether or not Wal-Mart should be praised or scowled at.
One of America’s own is the leader a major leader in revenue, sales, and manpower. Wal-Mart, in some ways, embodies that American dream better than any other company known to man. Should we hate it or embrace
While it’s unclear how many of Walmart’s workers are on food stamps, as many as 15 percent of the company’s employees in Ohio are. Applying that same percentage to the rest of Walmart’s workforce, Marketplace estimated the company would need an extra $4.8 billion to lift its average wages across the U.S. enough to get all of its workers off public assistance.
Marketplace gets to its $4.8 billion figure by using an average wage for Walmart sales associates of $8.81 an hour. This figure, which was also cited in the congressional report by House Democrats — comes from market-research firm IBISWorld. Three years ago, an analyst at IBISWorld calculated the average based on job listings in urban areas, and posts submitted to the employer review site Glassdoor showed entry-level Walmart workers earning between $7 and $14, an IBISWorld spokesman told The Huffington Post.
Walmart spokesman Kory Lundburg told HuffPost the $8.81 figure was inaccurate.
“We don’t know how they arrived at that number,” Lundburg said in a phone interview. “It’s so off it’s laughable that they even try to cite it.”
He said waged workers earn $11.83 an hour, on average, and that 99 percent of the company’s employees make above the minimum wage.
In any event, Marketplace estimated that Walmart would need to raise average wages for low-level employees from $8.81 to $13.83 to get its workers off food stamps. And that would cost, in total, $4.8 billion.
Walmart is a mammoth company, so it would only need to raise prices by about 1.4 percent to cover that cost, Marketplace estimated.
To see what all this means for your mac-and-cheese, let’s walk step-by-step through Marketplace’s calculation:
Sales associates in urban areas earned an average of $8.81 an hour, according to the IBISWorld research number cited by Marketplace
A single mom working at Walmart for that wage might be eligible for food stamps. A two-person household can earn as much as $20,449 per year and still qualify.
For this single mom to no longer quality for food stamps, she would need to earn about $13.63 per hour at an average number of retail hours.
Paying that to employees claiming one dependent and working 30 hours a week, a federal average for retail workers, would cost Walmart an additional $4.8 billion each year. And unless the company wants to eat that cost, it would pass it on to customers in the form of higher prices.
How much higher? On average, about 1.4 percent, by Marketplace’s estimate.
How would that affect Walmart shoppers in real life? Well, a box of macaroni and cheese, which ordinarily costs this much:
Would now cost this much:
So paying this much more per box of macaroni and cheese:
Would save the government this much in food stamp costs each year:
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