The Rich get Richer

Recently, Walmart has faced criticism for their low hourly pay. A report, revealed by Bill Simon, the president and CEO of Walmart has 525,000 full time employees make less than $25,000 a year. If your curious, $25,000 a year equates to roughly $12 an hour on a full time job Monday to Friday from 9AM to 6PM. $25,000 is however, well above the poverty line in the United States but why would there be complaints for the low wage? A study at one Walmart in Wisconsin found that 300 employees needed roughly $900,000 worth of public assistance a year. Certainly, it is difficult for us to imagine living on less than $25,000 a year but in reality, many people do. If Walmart does raise the wages, Walmart is almost certainly to have their profits decreased which is not what they want. However, Catherine Ruetschlin, an analyst at Demos, the progressive policy center, said that “a raise to $25,000 a year would lead to at least $11 billion of new GDP and generate 100,000 new jobs.” She explains that when a company like Walmart raises the salary, more money will go back into their cash registers because the workers are likely to spend more at Walmart.  Even though she makes a good point, if I were Walmart and seeing how successful this giant of a company has been would not raise the wage unless there is a downward trend in sales.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-23/more-than-half-of-walmarts-hourly-workers-make-less-than-25-000#r=hp-ls