Imagine how much they could pay the people at Walmart's, if they divided all the wages among the fired Sam's stores among those people? Ha! Walmart's has always been a seedy, disgustingly exploitive company. (People have died in their lockdown night shifts, and that's just one example.) What's new? Give credit to Trump for their new less-than -living wage! He's seedy, too.
4
There are still thousands of Walmart Stores in America. This is a huge step forward for workers. Regardless of the reason it should be lauded.
1
Sam's Club is not Walmart, just as Whole Foods is not Amazon. When a company owns another in a different line of business, there is no obligation to prop up the failing business with the profits from another part of your company. I can't wait for the outcry when a Whole Foods market is closed. Boo hoo!
1
Store closings are something that would have been under evaluation long before the tax bill was a gleam in anyone's eye. The bonuses have nothing to do with it.
2
I worked at Wegmans while attending graduate school and was given a pen with my name written on it! This was our annual gift! I prefer money, however all these behemoth corporations only care about money and profits! Bad timing on the closing of the Sam's Clubs, but no surprise!
1
Of course businesses close stores where competition has made them not profitable, We have one Sams in my town and basically no competition, it is quite busy and I bet profitable.
Wal-Mart is increasing starting wages due to stiff competition for potential workers. It has nothing to do with the new tax plan.
9
Walmart put thousands of people out of work so they would be able to pay the others 2 more dollars per hour. Wow, I think they will be making an even bigger profit by not paying the thousands they put out of work.
9
The Waltons believe that employees are commodities. With all the billions and billions of dollars that the Waltons have they have little regard for their own employees the people who work hard to make them wealthy. OK, I get it. Wal Mart is not in business to be a charity. But Wal Mart has no social conscience or moral compass. Employees, when they're no longer needed are simply discarded without warning. Of course there are many other mega corps with the same regard for workers. Carrier is another example of a corporate giant that shipped jobs to Mexico and left employees empty handed. But, regardless this is about Wal Mart.
Giving with the right hand while taking away with left should be a warning to all other remaining or future Wal Mart employees. You're worth nothing to this company. A token raise is worthless. When Wal Mart doesn't need you anymore you're gone. This is not a company that is building futures for people. It is a family building its own personal worth.
11
every corporation is required to treat employees as resources to be used to create profit, they have that duty.
3
Costco pays more, over $15/ hr. With healthcare. And vacations.
But then, the owners make a lot less.
It is just that some bosses think of their employees has human beings.
11
So, Walmart gets a "huge" corporate tax break.... It then gives some workers, raises $11 an hour, to match the competition, but closes 63 stores, thereby pocketing EVEN MORE money for itself and leaving hundreds (thousands?) of the "little people" unemployed?
Nothing like "helping improve people’s lives," a la Ryan and Trump!
12
Haiku
Walmart wages up...
But closing 63 stores
To offset wage hike.
2
All of these bonuses are a cheap giveaway by these corporations. The tax cuts are permanent. The profits they have been making for years are not illusionary. But they decide to give a one time bonus, knowing the profits will continue for years. The CEO received a 13% increase to base compensation last year. Not a bonus.
Employees were making 9$/hour. From that base pay, that's 5.5% of pay. Give the employees a base increase. A lump sum increase is a one time payment. Stop claiming how good companies are to employees until they increase their base in the same manner their management gets increases.
10
This story is so bad, it's hard to know where to begin. Every business (a foreign concept to most NYT readers) should be looking at its portfolio of assets and shedding those that don't generate an adequate return on capital on an ongoing basis. Large shareholders, like most public sector pension funds, demand nothing less. Walmart would have closed those stores regardless of whether they bumped their minimum wage. Store closings happen all the time, especially in a world where Amazon wreaks havoc on old business models. To say that the store closings somehow lessens the impact of a 10% salary increase for hourly workers is complete nonsense and the worst of false equivalencies.
6
So much "winning". I can barely stand it.
8
Doubt this raises all Walmart workers out of needing food stamps to feed their kids. Love to make Trump and Congress members live on that hourly wage.
9
In a capitalistic nation, Walmart did no wrong; on the contrary, they did, and are doing, everything right: maximizing profit. More money, a bigger bottom line, is the be-all and end-all of America's economic system, isn't it? Walmart isn't in business for fun; it's in it for the cash flow, primarily to its owners, stockholders, and board members. Employees aren't at the table, so they are on the menu.
The fat cats are getting fatter, but you can -- and they will, unless stopped -- kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Share the profits, fat cats, or, like Samson at the temple of Dagon, we will bring down the temple upon you philistines.
[I'm cursed with mentioning animals of all sorts in even my briefest comments. I need a writing coach or a 12-step program. Away, ye beasts! Away, I say!]
3
What did you expect the allegedly fine folks at fly-by-night megacorporation Walmart to do? Their brazen crooked greed is well-known, and their skill at buying regulators, officials, and PR is well-known. The Job Cuts and Taxes Act was the perfect time for them to do wage-whitewash PR, and the PR in turn was the perfect shield for their store-closure flybynightery.
In the meantime I hope the NYT, and commenters, have learned their lesson: when they buy a puff piece about, say...people who use their parking lots as glorified rest stops, it's a future investment in their evil.
Roll them back out of your town, all over the place, so you can Put On a Happy Face.
6
So the other shoe drops. You know, Walmart, it would be just easier for you to do the right thing. Stop thinking first of your executive bonuses and think first of your employees. Target did. Starbucks did. Costco did. And each one of them still makes a boatload of money.
Why is it so hard to change your ways? What would Sam say?
8
I really wonder why anyone is surprised that some of these companies are giving $1000 bonuses. That is chickenfeed compared to what they get by raping the US treasury.
7
Look--I hate WalMart. I think the Waltons are obviously horrible human beings who pay their employees so little that the taxpayers have to chip in to feed and house the employees.
Also, they import a bunch of planet-killing junk made in countries that pollute their own country as well as the entire globe. All involved do this to make a buck.
The Waltons never met a dollar bill that was beneath them to grab.
But they are a private business and allowed to close stores.
If people fall for their bonuses spin, people are stupid.
I can only hope that when my grandmother told me, "God will not be mocked," she was right, that the despicable Waltons will be held to account for their actions, especially since they claim to be Christians.
6
I have a Sam's Club membership over a Costco membership due to the convenience of a Seattle location. After Walmart's decision, I will never shop at their company again!
1
So Walmart was not profitable before the tax cut enough to pay wages sufficient to staff their stores with qualified personnel? The need to raise wages was so pressing that Walmart found it necessary to immediately utilize the tax cut bonanza for this purpose? What should shareholders think of this?
This is the same Walmart (while Hillary Clinton served on its Board) that used anti-union tactics including surveillance and pre-emptive closures to squelch worker organizing activity, presumably to forestall compensation demands. Now this noblesse oblige is not only pleasing to House Speaker Paul Ryan; it is in fulfillment of Hillary Clinton's stated goal when she hit the campaign trail back in 2015: “We need to get businesses back looking after their employees and their customers and their country, not just their executives and their shareholders,” as she was quoted in a Times article on July 16 that year. Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that pay raises are great as long they are dispensed solely at the pleasure of the owners as opposed to any collective pressure from workers.
3
How is Walmart not subject to the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act on the Sam's Club closings? This 1988 law requires employers to give employees a minimum 60 days notice before a mass layoff takes place so that they can prepare for unemployment while they are still working and receiving a wage. Yet, reportedly, employees showed up to work in some Sam's Clubs to find the doors shuttered, with no prior notice. Three of the closures are in Puerto Rico, leaving hundreds of workers suddenly jobless.
13
No surprise here. The billionaire owners don't want to share. So they make a cosmetic gesture while benefiting themselves.
Their employees will still have to subsist on government assistance, and some of them will have nothing. Meanwhile, they are some of the richest people on the planet.
What else is new?
16
Don't be fooled by this very limited "generosity" shown by a few Companies some of which are trying to validate the GOP's assertion that the boon to business of these new tax cuts will directly benefit ,affect positively and be shared between the middle class who were and are going to actually receive very little direct tax cut benefit benefits from the bill itself.
Perhaps companies (or some of them ,anyway) fear a backlash from their workers when they actually discover how little extra the Tax Cut would have provided them and so are being prudently generous now to ensure the rumble of dissatisfaction did not cause greater problems for them down the line.
Regardless, this move and others by some large companies is , if anything long overdue and has been paid for many times over by the fact that for YEARS they have refused to raise wages and provide benefits to most of their lower paid workers...far below the actual productivity gains those workers have contributed over the time they did not receive any pay or benefit improvements.
This is a Red Herring to make it look Companies are doing right as well as helping to prop up claims that the GOP made: that tax cuts would increase workers pay by growth of GDP , business booming and trickled down prosperity.
Paul Ryan is already singing his own praises by these gestures but just confirms how economically inept and desperate he is to be able to think he was/will be right.
But gestures have no economic basis in reality.
7
Walmart had plenty of profit to pay its employees more, it did not need a huge tax cut to do so. So now I pay higher taxes so the Waltons can roll around in 100 dollar bills and I still pay more in taxes to subsidize the Walmart business model, paying for medicaid and food stamps for its employees and for police to act as security guards since they won't hire security. The whole thing is disgraceful.
Don't shop at Wal-mart.
38
I don't think there is a connection between raising wages for some and closing stores.
Wal-Mart is the biggest and probably the worst retailer in the Western Hemisphere. Not only to they sell cheap and often inedible and usable products, their stores look trashy and they have run smaller and much better retailers out of town.
How many rural towns have only the Wal-Mart? I can count hundreds. Wage raises are a PR/media plan to make the company look better.
And so, because they are really bad at selling and are only good for cheap Chinese plastic, the closing of 63 stores basically reflects competition from Amazon and millions of dissatisfied consumers.
16
Walmart now provides better maternity and parental leave than that given to federal employees.
1
So let me get this straight: Walmart has to raise salaries because the competition has already done so, and we are at what economist consider full employment, so they cannot attract workers for less. The raises will help, but the American taxpayer will still be footing the bill for many of the basic needs those employees cannot afford even at their "generous" new salaries of $22,000 a year. Of a savings of $2.2 Billion in taxes, they raising salaries for a total of $700 Million, so the corporation keeps a full $1.5 Billion (over twice as much as the total salary raise). In the meanwhile, the government (i.e. all of us) will have $2.2 less Billion to pay for the medical bills Walmart's employees cannot afford, the education of the children of those employees, the infrastructure across the country that allows them to transport their merchandise, the police that come to their stores whenever they are called, the judicial system that guarantees their property, their rights, and the rule of law necessary for their stores to function, and all the other benefits of a civilized society that are paid through taxes and of which a large corporation makes a lot more use than any individual citizen. The numbers don't add up. We are all loosing in our quality of life and as a society, and the Waltons and their executives will pocket one and a half billion dollars. And we are supposed to believe this is a good outcome of the new tax bill?
29
Thank you. I could not have said it better myself. When will our fellow citizens wake up?
2
I happen to know a single lady with children that got a job at WM before this increase in pay was announced and today I saw her and asked what did she get out of this widely promoted benefit - nothing she said because she hadn't worked long enough to qualify.
Had a brother who worked for a large consumer good company and WM was constantly asking for new package configurations for WM only so as to make comparison to other similar products more difficult. To this day WM is the only major retailer offering a national brand of charcoal briquettes in an 11 pound bag at the same price point as an 18# in 2 of the biggest big box stores. WM puts it to their workers - Sam Wall used to travel around the country in his F150 Ford pickup and meet with his workers in their stores. The crowd running the place now fit donald's description of Haiti.
10
Does this mean that Walmart will no longer need the $7 billion per year in food and housing assistance and medical care previously provided by the states and federal governments to its employees? Are the Walton"s still 5 of the top ten wealthiest people in the country?
35
No wonder Walmart has planned to close 65 Sam's Club stores. Of late, Sam's Club has been selling inferior quality of merchandise under its private label "Members Mark."
The employees at the cash counter and customer service are very slow and they looked like lazy employees. Even brand name items, such as Eggland brand eggs in a carton are broken, dirty, and small and large, but labeled as "large eggs."
The beef stew is supposed to be lean per warehouse managers, but Sam's Club sells very inferior quality of beef stew with lots of fat and bad parts of meet. The cap of the milk can cannot be opened without using a tool and a knife to cut through the seal.
Unlike its competitor Costco and BJ’s, Sam’s Clun does not accept return items, such as food, wine, etc., without a receipt.
I complained on these and other issues to the various warehouse managers and the CEOs of Sam’s Club and Walmart, but there was no response or improvement in quality and service.
Last week, the warehouse club manager of Sam’s Club in Sugar Land, Texas, told me that based on just one customer’s complaint, action cannot be taken to rectify or resolve the issues. That is poor customer service.
9
This is great news, just what progressives have wanted for years. Higher wages, and fewer jobs. They may not say it, but it seems the higher wages go hand in hand with fewer jobs. And more automation.
5
This would be because the stockholders won't accept anything but increases in profits (note: not just profits, not just necessary profits - a constant INCREASE in profits), so if operating costs go up, the cut has to come somewhere. You can bet it won't come out the rich folks' profits. They need that quarterly 0.01 percent increase in their millions in order to survive. If thousands of regular people have to lose their jobs for that to happen, so be it.
7
Takers don't want to know. The people they are taking from are not making a living wage, but you want to have a cheap talking point.
Shame on you!
3
I wonder about the net effect on the bottom line.
2
Ah yes... the old "bonus" game. We did that with our employees when I was a municipal supervisor. Gave them 3% raises every other year and 3% bonuses in the other years. It took them about 3 contracts to realize that bonuses do not compound. You do not make long term purchases based on bonuses.
15
$1000 bonuses = dashboard change for a Walton family member.
18
The Walton family's motto is 'We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to ourselves'. When is enough money enough?
I know that Walmart sells torches they may be cautious about the pitchforks.
16
How much money is the Walton family worth again? Hrrrm... According to this October, 2017 post it's about 140 billion.
http://time.com/money/4977419/walmart-stock-price-walton-family-fortune-...
10
Reasons why no company large or small wants a union: the union criticizes the raise as not enough, even though it did not lift a finger to earn that raise.
Walmart is criticized for closing stores. This is a corporate management decision to close unprofitable stores.
Does this criticism of Walmart management mean it should go to Palm Beach on vacation and turn the decision making over to the union?
Finally, stop criticizing the rich and showing your envy of their money and land holdings. If you were also rich, you would nol be on the side you are on.
-Estaban Goolacki out
What did the Walton children do to earn their billions, other than have the right father? The idea that every wealthy person has “earned” their wealth, which is the essence of your position is not only unfounded, but as in the case of the Walton’s entirely contradicted.
11
Closing 63 Sam's Club Stores and letting workers stand in the cold looking at locked doors when they show up for work and realizing they lost their jobs is what you would expect from Walmart. Now their stockholders and high paid executives can use that money for an even nicer bonus. Forget about trying to improve your image Walmart, you never can.
23
What was their PR department thinking? Who treats people like this and expects to get away with it? I can't get over how bad this was handled.
1
Are you the same NYT that was complaining about Walmart forcing out mom-and-pop stores?
6
Wal Mart is enormously protitable, yet Wal Mart pays their employees so little, and gives either paltry or nonexistent benefits, so many of those same employees require public assistance just to survive. In reality, it's we taxpayers that end up paying benefits to Wal Mart's employees, since their corporate leaders are too greedy to do so themselves. This is inexcusable.
That they are the nation's largest private employer makes me shudder. They have created a massive race to the bottom not only with quality of life for their employees and worker's rights, but also the disastrous impact they have upon local communities, where they often obliterate smaller businesses with their supercenters.
Wal Mart is a poor corporate citizen. It's time that we push the GOP out of office for good and enact both wage increases and stronger labor laws, including expansion of unionization, that will benefit workers instead of treating them like grist for the corporate mill.
20
“There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing,” John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam’s Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening.
This is hilarious. What about a meeting with your employees face to face. Maybe that's not easy enough. A phone call might do. Nah too difficult. Robocall your employees? Too much effort.
Like it's easy for his employees to spend a shift stocking shelves on their feet for $10 an hour day after day.
31
I think that Sam Walton has spun enough to dig his grave all the way through to China - where his progeny now contract most of what they sell. Sam was big on buying American-made products. Sam also was big on taking care of his people.
Anymore, the Walton family is just big on money. THEIR money.
12
More silliness. Walmart is a terrible corporate citizne having outsourced to mostly Asian countries plenty of jobs making what used to be made in the USA.
(Interesting to see what is "Made in China" for different national markets-- Italian, Danish, etc.
Daily, the number of jbos diminish -- which is why I don't do self-check out at the grocery store or may ask for help paying my credit card bills.
More people than we need-- and yet losts of undone jobs-- filthy dirt, unmaintained subways while the MTA waste .5 billion creating a fare system that will know what's in your wallet/pocket. Hoever, automation is a good thing... ( No more tired truck drivers on the road.)
When the rich devide to be good citizens and stop paying 400 million and NO LUXURY TAX on a supposed Leonardo da Vinci... Blame Clinton for getting rid of the Luxury Tax charming referred to as "the federal tax" in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and never discussed by Krugman (fewer middle men involved) -- pjut back decent interest rates and don't worry about upsetting the market which does nothing anyway.
BTW we really should have a citizen's democracy and get rid of Congress which has created many a problem bb-- All Citizens vote on the issues-- clean bills only once a week.
American probles amd propaganda from that genius Paul Ryan -- Pelosi is just as bad.. People who are excellent at spin-- not so good at figuring out consequences..
Economic disruption will continue as more and more is automated..
“There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing,” John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam’s Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening.
Oh please. Of course there is. The store managers can call a meeting with employees at the beginning of each shift and relay the news. In fact that routinely happens in retail settings. Now that would mean they would have to face the employees, which I suspect is the real reason there is no "easy way."
20
Here are the total number of USA Walmarts by year from 2012-2017
4,479 4,005 4,203 4,516 4,574 4,672
Even with closings they have significantly more stores and employ more people that they have in previous years.
The desire to frame operating and business decisions in some evil capitalist desire to displace hourly workers is frankly silly and juvenile.
Walmart did the right think and gave tens of thousands of employees a massive raise and middle managers large bonuses and the Grey Lady bemoans an ongoing effort to have the effective and right number of outlets.
2
Typical of Walmart. It appears they raised wages only because Target had already done it -- they probably are having trouble getting employees. I stopped shopping at Walmart more than thirty years ago because they had no respect for their employees and the stores were dirty and disorganized.
Let the Walton family distribute some of their 145 billion dollars to charities serving those who might work for Walmart and probably need help with buying food, clothes, and food. No one individual or family needs 145 billion dollars. Your employees made that 145 billion dollars for you -- share it!
6
It would be helpful if the NYT would keep track of some of the larger company payouts and measure them relative to the tax savings, overall compensation, and stock buyback activity.
For example, $130 million is about 1.2% of the annual salaries/wages/benefits expense for American Airlines. If they save around $500 million in taxes (about one-third of their 2016 taxes) then this is 26% of that amount.
4
A whopping $22K a year working full time for the richest family on the planet.
The six Waltons of Walmart fame have a combined net worth of $145Billion. That's about 24 $Billion per Walton - all earned on the backs of their former $18K/year workers.
At $22K a year, a Walmart worker would have to work one million years to earn $22Billion!
10
So, where's Paul Ryan's follow up tweet, after his self-congratulatory one about Walmart raising wages thanks to the Republican tax bill (that give a few extra dollars to ordinary workers and a few extra hundred thousands or millions to the .01 percent)?
Not holding my breath . . . .
12
When you operate at the scale of millions or billions the American worker is just another asset. They’re never going to win, all they will ever achieve is enough to keep the machine running for the rich. Within a decade everyone between the coasts will be fighting each other for subsistence wages at Amazon or Walmart. They will be called “the good jobs.”
8
The ballyhooed $1000 bonus goes to workers with 20 years at Walmart. Everyone else gets less; the coverage of this story has buried the lede in more than one way
18
So Walmart is basically acknowledging that its employees are underpaid?
13
They may use the corporate tax cut money to fund it, but it doesn’t really matter since all the money is from the same kitty. They put some out and are making sure they put lots back in. They got what they wanted from the current govt via a tax cut and in return the administration got a shout out. Quid pro quo.
6
So now what happens to those big box stores? All 60 some? The physical real estate? Hundreds of thousands of square feet of ugly wasted space...
10
They'll sit there falling apart and Sam's Club will put restrictions on the sale so they'll be more difficult to sell. Hope these communities did not give them tax abatements, but they probably did.
15
Tax abatements...like Carrier, who just laid off more workers.
3
Yes, the raises and store closings are linked -- just not in the way The Times thinks. Sams Club has been a laggard for a long time and is not especially profitable. Without some of its weakest stores, the parent corporation is stronger and better able to better compensate its workers. Those stores would have closed even without the tax reform act, but the raises probably wouldn't have happened without that legislation.
4
“There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing,” John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam’s Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening.
- How about doing it the old-fashioned retail way? Call a store meeting at a time when the majority of the employees can attend. Pay the people who aren't on the schedule to attend. Tell them face to face and let them know about their options, such as transferring to other locations, COBRA, etc. in writing. Let them know you appreciate their hard work but this is a business decision. Let them have a few minutes to say goodbye to each other. They weren't fired!
But that's not the Walmart way. God forbid the company should spend a small amount of money from their own deep pockets to treat hard working employees like the human beings they are.
This lack of regard for anything but the almighty dollar shows in their brick and mortar stores. At one time, you could count on clean, well-stocked stores and excellent customer service. I drive 10 miles past my (closer to me) Walmart to Target, where I still have that type of shopping experience.
61
Walmart is incredibly un-American and they are not really a successful business model. They exploit workers and are the biggest "welfare King/Queen" in America. They have destroyed countless small businesses and communities and vendors. The Waltons and their management team are mean spirited and incredibly cheap and greedy people who lack respect for workers...as well as for US manufacturing which they have helped to destroy.....I have never spent one cent in a Walmart or any of their other ventures. Why would I when I have far better choices? Support authentic American businesses and Made in the USA companies....you will not find them at any Walmart... but they do exist and the quality is great and US companies are the backbone of our economy....I encourage everyone to boycott this despicable company.
7
An extra $80 a week per employee. After tax, maybe $60. Yup, life is improving already!
10
While I largely agree that the money is not much, we should recognize that for many, many families an additional $60 per week is a huge deal.
7
It is. But the 1%ers will be getting an average of $6400 per week.
Maybe there could have been a LITTLE more generosity for the people who DO really need help.
10
Thanks to the Waltons.
I wonder if the wage increase has any affect on the number of their employees who still qualify for food stamps? I'll bet little has changed. Walmart is certainly not alone in this. Most retail, fast food and others (those industries that have easily replaceable employees and large employee turn over - low skill jobs) also pay poverty wages. I expect that the majority of Walmart's competitors pay about the same. Americans like their cardboard flavored burgers and their cheap plastic goods from China.
I personally can't spend more than a few minutes in any of the box stores because the fumes which emanate from the products make me feel ill. But then, many americans intentionally douse themselves with toxic wastes called perfumes and colognes, so I suppose they like the smell of toxic fumes. It makes sense somewhat in that perfumes are indeed toxic and your brain knows this and it tries to protect itself by slowing the flow of blood to the brain, which means brain function is hindered. I suspect it is the bliss of low brain activity that they seek unknowingly. Trained like pavlovs's dog but to numb their brains and get that blissful feeling..
8
None of this has anything to do with the GOP tax scam. Walmart is realigning itself to compete in a changing marketplace which is why they are thriving while stores like Sears and Macy's are slow going out of business. Like them or not, Walmart is a well-run company.
8
Are you planning on applying for a sub-minimum age job anytime soon?
2
The Wal Mart bonus is UP TO $1,000. That means someone working there for many years.
And Fiat Chrysler regularly gives bonuses to its salaried and hourly work force and has been doing so for the past 4 or 5 years since the bankruptcy.
Once again, corporations crowing thinking it causes the sun to rise.
6
I'm proud not to be a Wal-Mart customer. How can Costco be so successful while treating their employees so differently.
Also, has Wal-Mart axed their PR department. Seems like it.
21
Costco's number of employees per square foot and employees per dollars spent are much lower than Walmart's, the labor required to display it's merchandise is a fraction of Walmart's, the scope of its product offerings are miniscule compared to Walmart and most importantly, Costco gets over 40% of its revenue from membership fees. That's right, they're making money before the doors even open each day.
2
Wonder how many closed stores will then be “dark empty” and ruin the tax collections in the cities keeping small businesses out.
12
Bingo!
3
Does Walmart's left hand know what its right hand is doing?
The Sam's Club closings sound haphazard at least in reference to how employees are being treated. It's just wrong not to tell workers that their jobs are disappearing. That gives them no time to find another job without losing paychecks in the interim.
6
My first response to the announcement by Walmart that they were raising the starting minimum wage to $11/hour was this:
All well and good but good PR. The federal minimum wage when I entered the work force in 1968 was $1.60. Multiply that by 6+ to take into account inflation. Then multiply that by 2+ to take into account productivity increases. $1.60/hour x 12= $19.20/hour. This is just a back of the envelope, very conservative wage adjustment calculation. If companies can't pay a federal minimum wage of at least $15.00/hour, I'd be happy to see them go out of business. We know that because wages are so low now that people receive government subsidies in the form of SNAP, Medicaid, CHIP, etc. Give people a better life by paying them a decent wage. Corporations are enormously profitable now; better to squeeze them than the working poor.
One more point. Just as in the transition from traditional welfare to TANF with work requirements in the 1990s, the point in requiring work in return for Medicaid benefits is to dump as many low-skill, low wage, albeit marginal workers into the work force to keep wages down. The race to the bottom continues.
34
A better life-- for nonworkers.. will be educational possibilities for people of all ages, physcial activity/gyms for people of all ages-- the Czech Sokol, access to museums for people of all income levels. no senior discounts for seniors with big fat wallets, libraries open longer hours.
There are surplus people on the planet, many of them.. Work is over-rated and there is less and less except at the MTA and other civic union jobs (allof them) which is most cases are overpaid major... huge corruption factors..
Is it time for a revised version of Marxism??
I was interested in buying a retirement property in Laughlin NV. With the closing of the Bullhead City Sam’s Club, I have reconsidered and am thinking Las Vegas even though I was looking for a smaller town vibe.
Now I hear that Walnart is buying property where I live in Seattle. I’m going to use my political goodwill to fight it. I’ve built a reputation for being reasonable, and it is a reasonable argument that a Walmart could close, leaving a giant ugly empty property for the neighborhood to deal with.
11
The 2013 OECD data showed the US trailing behind many developed countries (ranking 11th) which in addition to better wages, provide their citizens with universal health care, tuition-free College, parental leave, etc.
In the meantime, here, the rich get richer and the balk of the population is left behind with scraps!
7
A few days ago I read a story about a former mining town in Kentucky that was slowly dying, and one of the recent departures was the Walmart. The people have essentially no where to shop within a reasonable distance. But this is the inherent danger when people choose these big box stores when they first open, shutting out all the small local businesses. The businesses die, leaving the big box as a monopoly not only for shoppers but as an employer as well.
In Toronto, I have NEVER shopped at Walmart, choosing local Canadian companies instead.
And don't be fooled by lower prices. Recent docs have interviewed former Walmart managers who have admitted that they do NOT have the lowest prices on every product, but only certain featured items.
Similarly, I will shop on line, but not through Amazon. This company is accumulating too much power, and is pushing too many local, community-based businesses into bankruptcy.
Consumers need to think about the long term health of their communities when they make their purchasing decisions. Corporate entities don't give a damn about the local communities they "serve", but the local businesses certainly do. Buy local and buy small!
54
I am going to drive across town this afternoon to pick up a pair of shoes I ordered. Made in the USA, they are more expensive than the imports. I could have purchased online, but instead went to a small family business and looked at, touched, and tried on several different types. They did not have what I wanted in stock, so they ordered them for me. I'll go try them on, and if they fit as well as the others I tried (same style, different color), I'll take them home.
Did I pay more? I certainly could have then order the same shows online for a bit less money. But I value the workers in this community - both national and local - enough to make that small sacrifice, as they provide a service not available online. You see: I am not wealthy, but shopping this way enriches my soul.
22
Good for you. I also shop local every time it is possible, supporting my community.
2
Willing to bet that WMT associates and most of the employees supported the same Repub congressmen that led to this day. Including supporting Trump.
Watch what you ask for. You may get it and more. As an individual stock holder, it is not doing that great either. The company and the institutional holders are getting max benefits.
8
The Walton family ( all 4 parts together ) are the richest people on earth.
This is a company that will close a store outright within moments of losing any court battle that mandates they allow their employees to form a union, so moves like this are not at all surprising.
I do not understand ( since I own a small business meself ) paying employees, with benefits so that your profit line might be in the high teens\low twenties, instead of the high twenties\low thirties.
I mean, how many billions do you think you can take with you ?
41
At this level of income, it's a mental illness - an addiction to seeing numbers go up. These people don't need, or spend, a hundredth of their profits.
1
There can never be too many Walmarts.
1
There are already too many walmarts.
3
Ahh.... Those evil capitalist pigs. How dare they close stores that are not making ends meet! LOL!!!
Seriously though. I guess they seem to forget that ALL brick and mortar store fronts have been suffering for years due to Internet sales. I worked at CompUSA for many years and clearly saw, and understood, what was happening. And that was 15 years ago.
1
Did you show up for work one day to find the doors locked? That is what happened here. I do not believe that closing 63 store was an overnight decision.
20
You, probably deliberately or else you have a reading comprehension problem, miss the point.
It's not that they are closing stores.
It is that they did this huge PR stunt around their raises and bonuses to get publicity and suck up to Trump but did NOT even tell the affected Sam's Club employees they were being fired. So they showed up for work to see a SIGN on the door.
How cruel is that?
8
Exactly. Heck, years ago the corporate parent to Radio Shack did mass layoffs at their headquarters via emails sent at lunch time. People weren't allowed back in the building.
surprised anyone?
10
The collective offering by the corpocracy of bonuses and wage increases is a little like a drive-by pedofile offering candy to a kid. It ignores the question of the ultimate net, long term effect of the 'tax reform'. It does not address the fundamental inequity of the arrangement as a piece of legislation crafted by and for the corpocracy; it does not address the long term consequence to the national debt and the ten year date of reckoning; it does not address the utterly irresponsible and devious manner in which this bill was crafted; it does not address the utter cowardice of too many of our legislators who failed to stand and protect our interests.
11
i wondered how they were going to pay for that 'bonus' without having to actually shell out a penny from their own pile.... makes total sense, though they should have spaced out the announcements a bit - looks dodgy as it is.
7
No matter how you slice the pie, Walmart stands for evil.
13
Sam's Club is a Wal-Mart subsidiary that operates in a different market than Wal-Mart (i.e., warehouse membership clubs like Costco). Sam's Club is not Wal-Mart. The fact that Wal-Mart is able to respond to tax cuts in one way does not mean that Sam's Club can respond in the same way -- just as a publisher might be able to give bonuses to the employees of its most successful publication but still have to cut staff on its least successful. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have separate books, separate management, and separate marketing strategies. This is business. You don't use revenues from Wal-Mart to prop up Sam's Club if it doesn't make business sense to do so. Of course, these basic realities don't matter to the NYT, as it falls all over itself trying to discredit the GOP tax bill, and it certainly doesn't matter to the left, which expects corporations to act as charities, even as they employ a substantial percentage of the "working class" they purport to champion.
8
That does not excuse Walmart's blatant attempt to gain positive publicity for a commitment to employees without details on the same day it throws thousands of employees out of work.
7
All those "separate" things, right? Same owners of both, right? Follow the money.
3
The "wage increase" in the headline is misleading. A $1000 bonus, one time, is a feel-good sop that doesn't mean a long-term increase in pay that will enhance workers' lifestyles and their ability to provide for their families. Truth is more important than sops. Please print the truth.
6
Hillary Clinton was a member of the Walmart board while the Clinton's were in Arkansas. This was clearly a lucrative quid pro quo and strangely was never mentioned in her campaign literature. When Bernie was proposing a $15 minimum wage, she countered, uncomfortably, with a $12 figure, assuming even that would be walked back. Old habits - and allegiances die hard.
6
"“There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing,” John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam’s Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening."
Really? You'd think that any second grader could walk up to workers in the store and tell them, "I'm so sorry, next Thursday is our last day, so please don't come in starting Friday." Of course, second graders are inherently honest.
14
The Walton family ( all 4 parts together ) are the richest people on earth.
This is a company that will close a store outright within moments of losing any court battle that mandates they allow their employees to form a union, so moves like this are not at all surprising.
I do not understand ( since I own a small business meself ) paying employees, with benefits so that your profit line might be in the high teens\low twenties, instead of the high twenties\low thirties.
I mean, how many billions do you think you can take with you ?
2
The Walton family ( all 4 parts together ) are the richest people on earth.
This is a company that will close a store outright within moments of losing any court battle that mandates they allow their employees to form a union, so moves like this are not at all surprising.
I do not understand ( since I own a small business meself ) paying employees, with benefits so that your profit line might be in the high teens\low twenties, instead of the high twenties\low thirties.
I mean, how many billions do you think you can take with you ?
Typical bait and switch. Media needs to highlight net loss of jobs!! Headlines are so misleading! How about -- Massive Store Closures (63) by Walmart after Tax Bill Passes -- FRAUD!
We need direct and honest reporting to stop this corrupt government that has already decimated so much of our democractic institutions and plans on doing more damage while lying to the people. We must have truth to combat this assault on our Democracy! RESIST!
5
This is not the first period in history nor the first country where public opinion has been bought and sold, commoditized, by media manipulation coming from the rich and powerful (such as has been and is still happening regarding the tax cut for the rich). It is however the saddest thing to see members of a United States Congress, "patriots" who swore an oath, completely ignore our social contract and our founding principles in the service of rich paymasters, and to have their behavior and their votes supported from the rear by a media that is either directly tied to industry and/or anti-egalitarian ideologues or, on the other side, a media supine and willing to ignore the real story of the historic swindle because it is more fun to report on the "president" using racist cuss words.
1
Just obsequiousness to curry favors from tRump.
2
The article headline is misleading. Walmart is closing Sam’s Club stores not Walmart stores. Get the story straight instead of trying to mislead people with the headline.
2
I'm sure that will make the newly jobless employees feel much better.
2
as wages rise there will be a lot more store closings also here in Canada.as an employee one can make 40 thousand a year.why open a small business as most struggle.
2
$9/hour is already below min wage in about 18 states. Other states are slated for an increase in the near future.
So $11/hr is really just a small price to pay for some rare (and much needed) positive press.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-cha...
7
Corporate PR departments will work overtime promoting stories like this while in the Boardroom plans will continue to focus on closing stores, automating production lines, outsourcing call centers to foreign lands. Then with the tax windfall they will increase dividends , share buyback and expensive mergers.
This is their job and no one should misunderstand it.
Jobs created in 2017 lagged 2016, maybe 2018 will be better but not much better as there is a lack of skilled people to fill available jobs.
Slightly longer term inflation will be a problem , cost push inflation fueled by increases in commodity costs in particularly oil , labor costs exacerbated by higher health care costs.
this inflation added to higher interest costs will wipe out the pitiful decrease in taxes for the middle class, reduce consumer demand and lead us into recession.
Our New President in 2020 will have to overcome this, the deficit we have in an educated work force vis a vis other countries, rampant health care costs , a deficit of enormous proportions., preventing us from fixing our crumbling infrastructure.
The direction Trump and the Republicans are taking us in is relegating us into a third world country where the rich live in corrupt luxury and the majority of Americans suffer declining living standards.
Oh yes we will have lots of military hardware but we will be vulnerable to a cyber defeat if other countries choose to inflict on us
8
It’s capitalism, the good outweighs the bad. wal mart could raise wages because it closed underperforming stores. Notice to employees was due though, or perhaps a little severance in return for short notice.
2
If the DEMS controlled Congress, the Tax Bill would likely have been structured with different incentives: "We'll lower the corporate tax rate if you 1) increase wages and benefits, 2) make additional capital investments in targetted areas, etc." In other words, embrace capitalism and provide incentives to shareholders and owners of capital where society as a whole can reap the benefits of investment. Of course, this is contrary to the "trickle-down" theories that, for some reason, continue to prevail in GOP circles... but that is why elections matter!
5
The simple truth of the story was buried, as this is all you need to know: "Walmart said it was planning to close about 50 Sam’s Club stores across the country and retrofit about a dozen others into e-commerce fulfillment centers."
E-commerce fulfillment centers. Supply chain. Reducing the number of cashiers. Combine that with a recent statement on Marketplace by The Home Depot's CEO that no new stores have been built since 2007-08 but stores have been retrofitted with Amazon-style lockers. Think: The Amazon-ization of retail.
17
So this is Walmart's fault? Really, quit blasting a company for trying to stay relevant. You have to do what you to do to stay in business or you can become a Kodak, or a Xerox.
1
Amazon has killed retail in many sectors. the new reality. there is no free lunch. that's why education/retraining so important.
1
How many of Walmart's cashiers and other store workers are full time? Walmart is known for being a part time employer and thus giving no health insurance and no benefits to these workers.
73
This is why I have always refused to shop at Walmart. I was a Union Steward UFCW when I worked for Safeway. It's reprehensible what they did yesterday . The Sams Club is closing on Jan 26 here in my hometown. The employees and customers showed up at the store and a team of security guards from New York were already in place to keep everyone out. This is a disgusting practice that shows what cowards they truly are.
86
Walmart has indicated elsewhere that it is converting some or all of the closed stores to e-commerce distribution centers, which will provide some jobs.
The real "bad guy" here is Amazon.com, which - Liberals who hate private for-profit business, please take note - has been able to semi-monopolize retail e-business. Walmart is reacting.
3
People who yell about Trump all day long will happily shop Amazon for everything including their toilet paper -- not to mention that they will also happily install Amazons bugging device in their homes.
And it is also the most wasteful way to ship products -- like when I get a CD in a box large enough for a television, I personally said ENOUGH.
Bezos might be a bigger psychopath than trump and all the profits Amazon claims are based on smoke and mirrors.
1
I fail to see how this is a liberal versus conservative issue. This is a big business versus everyone else issue. While corporations have a coherent and ruthless strategy to enrich themselves, people such as yourself continue to focus on irrelevant distinctions. Your accusations against liberals simply makes the job much easier for companies like Walmart and Amazon.
If you are truly concerned about monopolies, you’d be better off worrying about lax enforcement of the Sherman and Clayton Acts.
5
We should be boycotting not only Walmart but Amazon too.
1
They have not realized any savings yet, so it's clear they already had the money to give bonuses and raises. I'm not a business person, but it doesn't seem like a sound practice to pay employees based on income/profits you don't have yet.
9
The nation's largest extended family of billionaires, the Waltons of Walmart, are given a huge boon by the new tax code, so they share some of it by finally deigning to pay their long-underpaid workers a living wage.
This sure puts the "trick" in "trickle-down."
43
$11/hr is not a living wage
5
Good point, though it really depends on the cost of living where one lives.
Remarkable that over a 20% wage increase is STILL not enough for most people while the Waltons bask in their grotesque wealth.
1
What a scam!
They could have been paying them right, from the start. They have been making billions by taxpayer subsidy from the start. That subsidy is us paying the employees welfare and food stamps to make up for the wages that are too low to make an actual living.
You want to do something decent for a change Malwart? How about you reimburse the various state and federal government agencies the billions of dollars in welfare and food stamps medicaid and other benefits paid your employees? How about just paying all of them $15hr and giving them 40 hours instead of loading up with too many employees so that you can keep them all working less than 40 hours so you don't have to give them benefits or pay overtime?
70
Excellent comment.
1
Trickle down economics has always been so reliable.
7
It is almost as if corporations are empowered to maximize profit and market share, and nothing else. If only we had another institution by which workers could bargain. And maybe the government could adjudicate when necessary.
Boy, if only there were some set of precedents for this. Then we wouldnt have to go cap in hand to institutions designed solely to maximize profit and market share—which means reducing costs constantly—to see if we could, like, have another bowl.
Someone let the Democrats know their party used to get this.
12
Congratulations Times. It only took you 24 hours to cover Walmart’s a/k/a the Walton billionaires, bait and switch.
I live in Durham, NC about a mile away from a Sams. I’ve always gone to Costco 6 miles away because they pay their folks a living wage, unlike Walmart or Sams. The next closest Sam’s to me in Morrisville, near the Raleigh Durham airport, closed yesterday with no advance notice to employees or customers.
Now that’s class.
Too little too late for Walmart...and those 1k bonuses, go only to employees unlucky enough to have been there 20 years or more.
138
They needed to get all of the Walmart corporation's public media propaganda points first.
2
Ya think!
1
Anyone who shops at Walmart (unless it's the only store in town) is contributing to a system that keeps people in poverty.
69
An ill-considered comment that does not realize that the biggest threat to a worker’s job and livelihood is an unprofitable company. Not shopping at a Sam’s Club means that store will close and the employees laid off. Which is what this news story is about
1
Agreed. I haven't shopped at one in 20 years.
4
The fact that the starting wage was 9 dollars an hour is an abomination. The fact that the company is touting an increase to 11 dollars is a joke. The fact that Walmart is America's largest employer is a problem.
152
This is corporate collusion with Republican politicians to obscure the real intent of the tax bill.
13
Raising wages because of a tax cut is just a bad business practice. Corporations exist to maximize profits. They should only raise pay because they cannot get the workers they need at lower wages. Could that be what is happening here? Competition from other employers and worker shortage are the real driving force. Crediting Trump is just kowtowing to a despot.
6
“There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing,” John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam’s Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening.
So the Walmart/Sam's Club executives choose the harshest way.
Remaining "Lucky" employees should take note of how much those executives really care about you.
21
When you assume that Big Companies have Big Boxes of Cash lying around, your view of business operations is wrong.
4
Anything and everything WM does is, ultimately, to benefit the Waltons. Period.
53
I thought that President Trump was very proud of his policies and agenda for the the robust economy we have experience during this short tenure. But the reduction of the number of stores and the number of employees belonging to Walmart presents an antithesis to what he claims. Where is the benefit of the trickle down process and the production of new jobs for which he is so quick to claim responsibility?
6
The GOP politicians who wrote and supported the "Tax Bill" knew very well that corporate tax cuts were designed to reward corporate shareholders. The incentives provided by the Tax Bill were NOT designed to incentivize the hiring more workers and paying higher wages. The proof of this is that some companies gave their employees $1000 "bonuses"... but the bonus is a one-time expense and NOT an additional "variable cost", as would be an actual increase in wages. Walmart and others are simply reacting in the manner the Tax Bill was designed to do: Increase profits and shareholder value.
29
Our WM is practically half closed already and it isn’t on the list. Many items often not stocked, including staples and groceries. Sad.
6
$700M to the employees, $20B to the shareholders in stock buybacks.
56
The Walton family had the means to pay their employees $11 per hour back in 1990. If our congressional representatives had any gumption, there would have been a requirement to tie increases in base wages to increases in executive compensation. It's still not too late.
Many blame internet shopping as the downfall of brick-and-mortar retail, but it was actually the artificial suppression of wages, by allowing corporations like WalMart to pay so little that their workers qualified for food stamps.
97
Wages, bonuses and benefits are all fully tax deductible. The corporate tax reduction has increased the marginal cost of Walmart's action. Thus, seeing this action as a PR move makes much more sense than it being an economic decision.
10
Walmart announced hourly wage increases in 2015 and 2016 as a retort to the push for $15 per hour minimum wage movement. In February 2016 the company pledged $10.58 per hour for a starting rate. The company's announcement to raise the minimum starting wage to $11.00 is really not related to the tax cut. It was already baked into the cake as part of the company's campaign to dodge the $15 per hour bullet.
55
Store-based retailers are going to be shedding jobs while internet-based retailers will add them - precisely what's happening. Walmart obviously had planned the store closings long before the tax bill was passed. For years, there's been debate about whether hiring people at minimum wage, as Walmart had done, was better overall business strategy than Costco hiring at more livable wages, and getting more loyalty; perhaps the Costco model is winning? Yes, Walmart should not have politicized its actions. But an important part of the shift away from store-based retailing is loss of sales taxes to internet retailers - that whole situation is a huge mess that needs to be cleaned up by Congress and state legislatures so people aren't hurting local governments when buying over the net (and avoiding sales tax). Walmart has been a retail sustainability leader, and now can help local communities reduce sprawl and its pernicious environmental and social effects by working hard to turn those Sam's Club stores into more dense mixed uses including local gardens - i.e. new uses that maximize the sustainability and economic benefit to local areas. But it seems Walmart sure mishandled the store closing process - good grief!
4
In 2016, Walmart's Net Income was 13.69 Billion.
Now, the GOP is going to add over 1.5 Trillion in debt to give them a tax cut of an estimated 2.2 Billion a year.
Walmart plans to give employee raises and bonuses expected to cost 700 million next year.
With almost 14 Billion in net earnings, why haven't they spent the 700 million before now?
Why do I and my children have to pay for debt to give Walmart another 2.2 Billion in Net Profits?
170
"Walmart said it was planning to close about 50 Sam’s Club stores across the country and retrofit about a dozen others into e-commerce fulfillment centers."
Besides these 50 or so stores, last year Walmart also closed 102 Express stores which sold primarily grocery items. They said the reason for these closures were due to little profit in maintaining them. However, forgetting about the employees and the people who depended on those lower prices to maintain their shoestring budgets just adds insult to injury.
I am happy that the minimum wage for a Walmart employee will increase from $9.00 to $11.00 an hour. However, I am equally disgusted that so many others have lost their jobs because of the profit margin issue. I realize that Walmart is a business and not the Red Cross, but at the same time, when the bottom line is valued higher than that of an employee or his/her livelihood, well, Walmart just lost a long time customer. Why must greed be the center of everything these days?
22
Let's not forget that Walmart also quietly stopped its price matching program at most of its stores. How much has that increased their profits?
4
I don't think you really understand that Wal-Mart is a business and not the Red Cross. Corporations allocate resources where they will derive the most profit. Period. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes people lose their jobs. If corporations ran themselves as you suggest, they'd be out of business and everyone would lose their job. Allocating resources to maximize profits ultimately benefits the country as a whole.
3
How is that? Without jobs, people can't buy anything.
4
"By tying its pay increases to the tax break it expects to receive, as other large companies have done in recent weeks, Walmart provided support for claims by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that the new tax law will benefit not just the wealthy but also working-class Americans.
“This law is helping improve people’s lives,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said in a tweet on Thursday, citing Walmart’s actions."
Orchestrated collusion between corporate oligarchs and government. This is kleptocracy, not democracy.
115
Buried in this article is the fact that Goldman Sachs predicted that the tax bill could drive up pay by stimulating the economy and drive wages higher as companies compete for workers. That's certainly good news.
As to the Sam's Club store closings, it appears that they were to occur in any case although the timing and communication was terrible. Walmart workers will enjoy a 700 million dollar "dividend'. Tax cut effect or competition result? either way, this is a much better story than the article portrays.
3
6,OOO people OUT OF A JOB
How can you spin THAT into goods news??
10
Wal-Mart raising wages from $9/hr to $11 is a good thing. Since that matches what Target did before the Tax Cut bill was even in the news Target certainly deserves praise for their wage hike. But the lion's share of the tax cuts are going into the pockets of the very, very rich and whether the economic stimulus will even be enough to offset the cuts in federal spending from the loss in revenue and deficit increases is yet to be seen.
6
Fiat's bonus will cost $120 million, a trivial amount for the company, which does not pay a dividend but whose stock value has more than doubled over the past year.
Any improvements in pay are to be applauded (so long as the company's income can support them), but to attribute such a minor improvement to the gigantic corporate tax windfall smacks of political shenanigans.
Perhaps the $120 million should be legally deemed a contribution to Trump's re-election campaign, because that's what it is.
9
Walmart raised wages. Not because it was the right thing to do. Not because their full time employees could not afford to live on their wages. Not because society has to step in to assist low wage workers with no access to employer healthcare. Not because they have so much accumulated wealth and profits that they could well afford to. No, they raised wages because they got a handout from the government in the form of a taxpayer subsidized tax cut.
37
Walmart heirs benefited immensely from the 2017 tax bill. They've been lobbying for years to do away with the Estate Tax. It's still there but will now affect half as many estates as it used to. Still, the cut in tax rates for the rich means they will be richer. I'm not surprised they tried to use the wage increase to promote tax-decrease trickle-down dogma. I am pleased the company's right hand (Sam's Club) didn't notice what the left hand (Walmart) was doing. It put the lie to the entire spiel.
65
“The real response of companies like Walmart to the Republican tax bill has been to ensure that its already high-paid executives and wealthy shareholders reap the overwhelming benefit, leaving thousands of workers standing in the cold without jobs.”
Democrats as well as Republicans have both left thousands of workers standing in the cold without jobs, and both have insured that high-paid executives and wealthy shareholders reap the overwhelming benefits. This is apparent by the steady and dramatic increase in income and wealth inequality over the last three to four decades, regardless of who is in office.
22
What fraction of its anticipated tax benefit is Walmart passing along to employees? Could it possibly be as much as 10%?
Note that if the 1968 Federal minimum wage had kept pace with the growth of average wages it would now be more than $21 per hour:
https://inequality.org/research/minimum-wage/
100