As long as we’ve interrupted our vacation, we might as well complete some unfinished Maybe the feds will look into the fact that Wal-Mart saves on personnel costs and keeps “The taxpayers are apparently taking care of a lot of Wal-Mart workers,” Bill Moyers’ Maybe shoppers will realize Wal-Mart pays such low wages that many of its workers can’t Here’s the Those who don’t believe Wal-Mart pays its workers less than its competitors might consider One Wal-Mart manager said that when he spoke out against the company’s “inadequate And one California official put the lie to Wall-Mart’s legendarily low prices: “When you walk As long as we’ve interrupted our vacation, we might as well complete some unfinished Wal-Mart business. A few days ago it was reported that the nation’s largest retailer is cooperating with a federal probe of its employment practices. That’s so nice to know, especially when there’s so much to investigate. Maybe the feds will look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-7L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWal-Mart business. A few days ago it was reported that the nation’s largest retailer is
\nwith a federal probe<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/B><\/A>of its employment practices. That’s so nice to
\nknow, especially when there’s so much to investigate. <\/P>
\n
\nprices low by encouraging its workers to make use of community health-care services, which are
\nprovided at public expense.<\/P>
\n
\ninvestigative news program, NOW, reported Friday after we began our vacation. “According to
\nthe Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California\/Berkeley, in 2002,
\nWal-Mart workers in California relied on 50 percent more taxpayer-funded health care per
\nemployee than those at other large retail companies. Put another way, taxpayers subsidized
\n$20.5-million-worth-of medical care for Wal-Mart in California alone.”<\/P>
\n
\nafford the company’s private (and expensive) health-care benefits plan and that it also keeps
\nworkers from qualifying for benefits (even if they can’t afford them). <\/P>
\n
\nWal-Mart<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>, which shows how the giant retailer’s low prices are
\nachieved at taxpayer expense not only for health care but for tax breaks and other
\nconcessions.<\/P>
\n
\nthis: “Unionized supermarket workers pay little or nothing for their health plans and have an
\naverage hourly wage of $10.35 per hour,” NOW reports. “Wal-Mart workers earn about 25
\npercent less … a reported $8.23 per hour.”
One Wal-Mart clerk who earns $14,500 a
\nyear pointed out that on his salary he can’t afford “the roughly $250-dollars it costs each month
\nfor Wal-Mart’s family medical plan.” To cover his wife and three children, he’ll need public
\nhealth-care assistance.<\/P>
\n
\nhealth-care plan,” he was fired. Another explained that Wal-Mart “counted on [employee]
\nturnover to get rid of some of the people that … were actually eligible to get the [company’s]
\ninsurance.” This went on for years, he said. Reporter Sylvia Chase concluded: “So putting it in
\nplain language you had to get rid of some workers. You had to replace them with part-time
\nworkers. You had to keep your workers un-eligible for health insurance coverage.” He
\nagreed.<\/P>
\n
\nout of Wal-Mart and you look at your receipt, you need to add onto that receipt the cost that
\nyou’re paying for increased transportation taxes for streets and roads, increased taxes to cover
\nsubsidies for their employees. Both in health care and social services. That’s a hard concept to get
\nacross. Because it’s not there in black and white on the receipt. But it’s — black and white in your
\npocket. You pay it. “<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"