more walton empire shit

 i know 

  i'm  just goin round 
and round here


  but i can't stop

its like  the gillions 
of hacked up clip-ings 
of john lenon

 on that wacho
 that shot him's  
toilet seat 

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With most of Wal-Mart's workers 
earning less than $19,000 a year
 a number of community groups 
and lawmakers have recently teamed up
 with labor unions 
in mounting an intensive campaign
 aimed at prodding Wal-Mart
 into paying
 its 1.3 million employees higher wages


 "Wal-Mart is doing the polar opposite
 of Henry Ford
 Wal-Mart brags about how 
its low prices help poor Americans
 but its low wages are helping
 increase the number
 of Americans in poverty.

 
Is It a Living?

 retailers with narrow profit margins
 face a different competitive situation
 and cannot afford to be as generous 
to their workers
 as automakers 
and other capital-intensive companies. 

Many of those assailing Wal-Mart
 argue that the company can
 and should, pay its workers
 at least $2 more an hour
 and add $1 or $2 an hour 
beyond that to improve 
its health benefits
 A Harvard Business School study
 found that Wal-Mart paid $3,500 a year 
for each employee for health care
 while the typical American corporation
 paid $5,600. 

If Wal-Mart spent $3.50 an hour more
 for wages and benefits 
of its full-time employees
 that would cost the company
 about $6.5 billion a year

 At less than 3 percent
 of its sales in the United States
 critics say
 Wal-Mart could absorb these costs
 by slightly raising its prices 
or accepting somewhat lower profits


 Wal-Mart had a profit margin 
on sales last year 
of around 3.5 percent. 

( $10 billion in profit
 on about $288 billion in sales)


Wal-Mart argues 
that, as retailing companies go
 it treats its workers
 better than average
 It says 74 percent 
of its employees work full time
 compared with fewer than 40 percent
 at many other retailers
 But critics note that a leading competitor
 Costco, pays $16 an hour 
- 65 percent more than the average wage
 at Wal-Mart stores 
and 33 percent
 more than the $12 average 
at its Sam's Club stores

 At Costco, 82 percent of the workers 
are covered by company health insurance
 compared with 48 percent at Wal-Mart 

 


"Retail has always paid poorly 
and it probably always will," 
 "Wal-Mart has a responsibility
 to serve their customers 
 to give them a good product 
 and to their shareholders
 They don't have a responsibility
 to society to pay
a higher wage 
than the law says you have to pay."


 "Wal-Mart's turnover
 will be close to 
half a million workers this year,
" 
 "By paying higher wages
 Wal-Mart will make 
its employees happier 
and will reduce turnover
 A lot of its new workers
 don't know where to stock things
 Higher wages will mean 
more productivity per person
 and that should help raise profits." 


A new group of Wal-Mart critics
 ran a full-page advertisement 
on April 20 contending 
that the company's low pay 
had forced tens of thousands 
of its workers to resort
 to food stamps and Medicaid
 costing taxpayers billions of dollars

 

 in a book to be published this fall
 a group of scholars
 will argue that Wal-Mart Stores
 having replaced General Motors
 as the nation's largest company
 has an obligation 
to treat its employees better. 

Among workers at Wal-Mart's
 3,700 stores across the United States
 the debate is also heating up. 

Labor groups and their allies 
are focusing on Wal-Mart
 because they say that 
the campaign will not just benefit 
its workers but also reduce 
the existing pressure 
on unionized competitors 
to reduce their own wages and benefits.

"Wal-Mart should pay people 
at a minimum enough 
to go above the U.S. poverty line," 

 "A company this big
 and this wealthy
 has the ability to pay higher wages."





Wal-Mart says its full-time workers average $9.68 an hour
 and with many of them working
 35 hours a week
 their annual pay comes to
 around $17,600
. That is below the $19,157 poverty line
 for a family of four
 but above the $15,219 line
 for a family of three.

Wal-Mart critics often note that corporations like Ford and G.M. led a race to the top, providing high wages and generous benefits that other companies emulated. They ask why