Taxing Walmart for paying slave wages: a great idea!

So we already know that Walmart is bad for our communities because they kill locally owned small business ("Studies in Iowa have shown that small towns lose up to 47 percent of their [local] retail trade after 10 years of Wal-Mart towns nearby"*) and we know that Walmart claims that it brings much needed minimum wage jobs into communities (it doesn't mention that those pay less than the jobs that would've otherwise been there if the megastore hadn't killed them).  But did you know that you and I have to pick up the tab so Walmart can pay their employees such low wages?  Those minimum wage jobs the world's largest retailer brings into a community pay so little that many employees have to supplement their income with state benefits like welfare because their jobs don't pay enough for them to live on.  This is a smart move for Walmart and part of the old capitalist money making scheme to outsource costs and privatize profits (basically getting the public sphere to help shoulder your costs, you get to keep more of your profits for yourself).  The state of Montana, however, is catching on to the megastore here and saying no.  Their state legislature is considering a plan to  tax big box retailers who pay less than a living wage to help subsidize the cost back onto Walmart.  If Walmart's going to pay their workers so little they have to rely on state benefits, then they're going to have to pay a little more into the state coffers to finance it.  To avoid the tax all the company has to do is raise the wages they pay.  What a great idea!   This isn't the first time this has been tried, it was attempted back in 2003 as well, but let's hope this time it passes.

Here are some links to more information:

--An editorial piece by one of those state legislators can be found here
--Or listen to an NPR News story on Morning Edition
--And the workers are fighting back.  Here's what the unions have to say...United Food and Commerical Workers International Union

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*1] Kenneth E. Stone, Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities, Published in Proceedings: Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and Policies – 1997 by Farm Foundation, Chicago, IL, p.3

Comments

[WhineyLimey]

Hummm,
On this side of the pond it appears that the supermarkets get round the minimum wage requirements altogether by only offering part-time work ( ie less than 35 hours per week) and part time work isn't covered by minimum wage legislation or if it is its at even lower rates.
And the food's lousy....

[tom]

In addition to the services provided, in Florida tax payers often help foot the bill of building walmarts and other chains. The Florida Department of Community Affairs has the community block development grant that subsidizes development in "less developed" communities. I have seen this used to pay for infrastructure improvements that are required for Walmarts. For instance, tax payer money went to four lane SR 19 in Palatka, FL for a Walmart Supercenter. In Belleview, FL $500,000 taxpayer dollars went to improve roads for a new Wendy’s. Local politicians generally push for these grants in the name of bringing jobs to a community. In more "developed" areas tax breaks are also often given by local government to encourage business to locate in a community.

Walmart is economically bigger than most countries and has used that power very effectively. I hope Montana is successful and can inspire other areas to follow their example!

[Claire Blue]

Why stop at walmart? If huge companies like proctor and gamble suddenly came into non-existence, think how many smaller companies would be set up to cater for the demand already in place. There should be a ceiling as to how big a company gets. Imagine if every country was a little more self sufficient - there would be less or no unemployment (which is the biggest factor in keeping wages low) as there would be factories springing up everywhere. Huge companies competing against each other keep wages low too. One of the terrible by-products of the system as it is is therefore human waste - people discarded onto the scrap-heap unemployment system in the name of higher profits. And the rest of the workers struggling to get by on less wages every year. The masses are IGNORANT to their own plight, brainwashed to become unquestioning shoppers and consumers from an early age. You care about the injustice and so do I but many are not even aware of it.