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>> If your business model is so thin that 3 dollars cripples you, really you need to re-think well... that really depends on economy of scale I would say. Wal

>> If your business model is so thin that 3 dollars cripples you, really you need to re-think well... that really depends on economy of scale I would say. Wal Mart has 2.2 million employees[1]. Lets assume 1 million of them are min-wage workers (assuming bottom rung has a high turnover, I think this might be conservative) Suddenly that $3/hr becomes $3 milllion/hr. Lets say the average worker works 30hrs/week, and suddenly this "$3" change from a $7 to $10 min-wage is costing Wal Mart 90 mil a week, over 4.5 billion a year! And eating 20% of your profit. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
Only 20% ?! That is surely a great argument for raising the minimum wage. I am sure Walmart will kick up a fuss, but there are plenty of other things coming down the road that will hurt it's profits more. Maybe they will get robots to stack the shelves from behind and save a billion. Either way the problem is still mot what should the actual wage level be, but how do we spread the wealth if pay packets no longer go to everyone?
eli_gottlieb 14y ago
Tsk tsk. The problem with Wal-Mart is that their wages are so low some of their stores hand out Food Stamps and Medicaid applications when they hire you. They literally do not expect that you can make a good living working at Wal-Mart. Which means that some portion of Wal-Mart's revenues is mathematically equal to the money the government spends topping-up their workers' incomes.
- ams6110 14y ago
  So food stamps and medicaid enable jobs like that to exist.
  - illuminate 14y ago
    They enable their children to not be malnourished.
  - kylebrown 14y ago
    Yup. Its a general rule that government spending supports the lower/middle class (the majority, and therefore most of the economy). The origin of the U.S. middle class was WWII spending. Without gov spending, you get ever-greater inequality as the economy is reduced to a corporate fiefdom run for the benefit of the wealthy minority.
    - twoodfin 14y ago
      I think if you looked at a graph of U.S. welfare spending vs. the Gini coefficient over the last 40 years you'd see exactly the opposite of the correlation you suggest.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  My point exactly. A minimum wage that is not a living wage is a subsidy to employers who troll at those depths

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

Only 20% ?! That is surely a great argument for raising the minimum wage. I am sure Walmart will kick up a fuss, but there are plenty of other things coming down the road that will hurt it's profits more. Maybe they will get robots to stack the shelves from behind and save a billion. Either way the problem is still mot what should the actual wage level be, but how do we spread the wealth if pay packets no longer go to everyone?

eli_gottlieb 14y ago

Tsk tsk. The problem with Wal-Mart is that their wages are so low some of their stores hand out Food Stamps and Medicaid applications when they hire you. They literally do not expect that you can make a good living working at Wal-Mart. Which means that some portion of Wal-Mart's revenues is mathematically equal to the money the government spends topping-up their workers' incomes.

ams6110 14y ago
So food stamps and medicaid enable jobs like that to exist.
- illuminate 14y ago
  They enable their children to not be malnourished.
- kylebrown 14y ago
  Yup. Its a general rule that government spending supports the lower/middle class (the majority, and therefore most of the economy). The origin of the U.S. middle class was WWII spending. Without gov spending, you get ever-greater inequality as the economy is reduced to a corporate fiefdom run for the benefit of the wealthy minority.
  - twoodfin 14y ago
    I think if you looked at a graph of U.S. welfare spending vs. the Gini coefficient over the last 40 years you'd see exactly the opposite of the correlation you suggest.
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
My point exactly. A minimum wage that is not a living wage is a subsidy to employers who troll at those depths