I'm Sure This is Happening in NZ as Well

[Lilith7]

" If Walmart were to pay a living wage, that would be avoided & its extremely unlikely that a living wage would cause Walmart to become bankrupt."

If the cost of employing staff is greater than the value of those staff, then the most likely "fix" would be to reduce the number of staff. It's what most businesses do if they are in that situation. So I said "Clearly you prefer that they have no jobs at all. There's no easy answer, but being blindly critical doesn't really help." Which I stand by. We have no real idea of the staffing structure and who on the staff is or isn't paid the right amount for the work they do. Here in NZ we have large numbers of part-timers who do not earn a "living wage" because they don't work enough hours and still need benefit top up. Staff structures involving a lot of part-timers can work in some industries, but it does spread the salary budget over more people. From a social point of view is it better to have a lot of employees earning not very much, or fewer earning more each but putting more people out of work? I can see pros and cons both ways. The bottom line is that we have no idea how Walmart is working, and the fact that some people protest is not evidence of an overall problem, just a problem for some individuals who may or may not be justified in their complaints. Sitting over here in NZ we simply do not know.

"How exactly did you manage to get that from my post - extraordinary!"

I didn't get anything from your post. A 2014 article from a left wing "news" source taken out of context is neither informative nor interesting. What I did do before I posted was look up some evidence via data on Walmart compared to some other companies and learn a bit more about the business concept of "profit per employee". From a straight business perspective Walmart needs a lot more than they show in the public books.

And, by the way, your habit of copying the text of your links into posts contravenes copyright unless it is specifically permitted by the publisher - you can make links to articles, and you can quote passages in the context of discussion, but just posting the whole article with little or no comment is pushing boundaries pretty hard I think.

"If a business as large & successful as Walmart is  unable to pay its workers a living wage, then perhaps they really shouldn't be in business."

Ability or inability to pay is very complex, and when you add in the philanthropic aspects of many of the big businesses you love to hate, there is no clear cut answer.

"The family which owns Walmart is very wealthy; their standard of living is unlikeltyto drop dramatically should they decide to do the morally right thing."

The Waltons are clearly extremely wealthy on paper and there is plenty of information on the big things they do in their lives, but we don't really know what kind of people they are.

You also have to consider the other 50% (approx) shareholders in the company. Some of them are probably very wealthy too, but it's quite possible that many are not. And the profit per share in the company looked pretty woeful to me. Unless we are there walking in their shoes we cannot begin to speculate on what the "morally right thing" to do is.

"How exactly did you manage to get that from my post - extraordinary!"

What I meant by that was your comment that I 'clearly prefer that the workers do not have jobs' - that was not at all what I either said or meant. Which I think most others reading it will have understood.

Again, if they paid their staff a living wage & if need be, take a little less profit that would at least improve their reputation - which isn't altogether shining.

And I disagree - its very common practice to C&P articles & AFAIK, copyright is OK as long as said article's source is credited, i.e, link included .

According to this, they're apparently living reasonably ordinary lives & making donations to various causes. (Business insider) And continuing to increase their wealth - Mother Jones.

https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-...ub-2018-12

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/201...th-cities/