5 ms·

utter nonsense. Walmart makes 131 BILLION dollars a year in pure profit [1]. Obviuosly, forcing walmart to pay their employees more could lead to them making le

utter nonsense. Walmart makes 131 BILLION dollars a year in pure profit [1]. Obviuosly, forcing walmart to pay their employees more could lead to them making less profit and the poor being better off. EDIT: Basically there is no correlation between walmart's costs and how much the consumer pays. [1] http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Wal-Mart_(WMT)/Data/Gross_Profit http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Wal-Mart_(WMT)/Data/Gross_Pro...

xienze 9y ago
The page you linked doesn't tell the whole story: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials The ~100+ billion number is revenue - cost of goods. Actual profit after _all_ expenses is around ~13 billion or so. Big number? Yes, but only around 3-4% profit margin. And it's been declining. Walmart has 2.3 million employees. $13 billion doesn't make for huge pay increases when you've got that many people to cover.
dominotw 9y ago
>forcing walmart to pay their employees more could lead to them making less profit and the poor being better off. What's stopping them from passing on costs to consumers, given they have eliminated all competition in large parts of the country.
- timthelion 9y ago
  The same thing stopping them from rasing prices right away without any change in the law.
  - dominotw 9y ago
    walmart and target pay the same wages.
    - timthelion 9y ago
      How does that effect the conversation?
ruste 9y ago
Gross profit. Not Net profit. They made a tenth of that after all other costs are considered. [1] 13.6 billion spread over 2.1 million employees works out to about a $6500 per year raise or about $3.10 per hour given 2087 working hours in a year before they're in the red. It'd help a bit, but nothing life changing. You're vastly overestimating their ability to raise wages without raising prices. [1]http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials
- timthelion 9y ago
  Are you sure that a 35% increase in sallary wouldn't be life changing for a person making 18k a year? https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmart-Sales-Associate-Hourly-Pay-E715_D_KO8,23.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmart-Sales-Associate...

xienze 9y ago

The page you linked doesn't tell the whole story: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials The ~100+ billion number is revenue - cost of goods. Actual profit after _all_ expenses is around ~13 billion or so. Big number? Yes, but only around 3-4% profit margin. And it's been declining. Walmart has 2.3 million employees. $13 billion doesn't make for huge pay increases when you've got that many people to cover.

dominotw 9y ago

>forcing walmart to pay their employees more could lead to them making less profit and the poor being better off. What's stopping them from passing on costs to consumers, given they have eliminated all competition in large parts of the country.

timthelion 9y ago
The same thing stopping them from rasing prices right away without any change in the law.
- dominotw 9y ago
  walmart and target pay the same wages.
  - timthelion 9y ago
    How does that effect the conversation?

ruste 9y ago

Gross profit. Not Net profit. They made a tenth of that after all other costs are considered. [1] 13.6 billion spread over 2.1 million employees works out to about a $6500 per year raise or about $3.10 per hour given 2087 working hours in a year before they're in the red. It'd help a bit, but nothing life changing. You're vastly overestimating their ability to raise wages without raising prices. [1]http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials

timthelion 9y ago
Are you sure that a 35% increase in sallary wouldn't be life changing for a person making 18k a year? https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmart-Sales-Associate-Hourly-Pay-E715_D_KO8,23.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmart-Sales-Associate...