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Economics 102: WalMart Cuts Worker Hours After Hiking Minimum Wages
This year, some American executives who heeded loud calls for across-the-board wage hikes for America’s lowest-paid workers received a complimentary refresher course in undergad economics courtesy of the free market.
Take Dan Price for instance, the 31-year old CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments Systems who found out the hard way that setting the pay floor at $70K comes with all manner of unintended consequences.
And then there’s Wal-Mart.
Earlier this year, the retail behemoth became one of several corporate heavyweights to raise wages for its meagerly compensated workers, around 500,000 of which are now set to receive at least $9/hour and $10/hour by Q1 2016. The move will cost somewhere around $1 billion this year.
Now one thing that should have been abundantly clear from the start is that if ever there were an employer that could ill-afford a $1 billion across-the-board pay raise without immediately making up the difference by either firing some employees, cutting hours, or squeezing the supply chain it’s Wal-Mart. After all, they’re the “low price leader”, and you don’t hold on to that title by passing labor costs on to customers.
Predictably, the company moved to extract more “value” from its suppliers and when that didn’t prove sufficient, the folks in Bentonville brought in the “plumbers.”
But the story didn’t stop there. Late last month we highlighted an internal memo circulated at Arkansas recruiting firm Cameron Smith & Associates which looked to be an attempt to prepare the firm’s employees for layoffs at Wal-Mart’s home office. Then, not a week later, Bloomberg ran a story detailing the grievances of some senior Wal-Mart employees who suddenly realized that although they may still be making more than their subordinates, the wage hierarchy had been distorted and that distortion had nothing to do with merit. As we put it, “higher paid employees don’t understand why everyone under them in the corporate structure suddenly makes more money and if people who are higher up on the corporate ladder don’t receive raises that keep the hierarchy proportional they may simply quit which means that, for Wal-Mart, raising the minimum for the lowest paid workers to just $9/hour will end up costing the company around $1.5 billion if you include the additional raises the company will have to give to higher paid employees in order to retain their 'talents'and avoid a mid-level management mutiny.”
Well, don’t look now, but undergrad economics is rearing its ugly again at Wal-Mart as the retailer cuts workers’ hours in a desperate attempt to offset wage hikes. Here’s Bloomberg with more:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in the midst of spending $1 billion to raise employees’ wages and give them extra training, has been cutting the number of hours some of them work in a bid to keep costs in check.
Regional executives told store managers at the retailer’s annual holiday planning meeting this month to rein in expenses by cutting worker hours they’ve added beyond those allocated to them based on sales projections.
The request has resulted in some stores trimming hours from their schedules, asking employees to leave shifts early or telling them to take longer lunches, according to more than three dozen employees from around the U.S. The reductions started in the past several weeks, even as many stores enter the busy back-to-school shopping period.
A Wal-Mart employee at a location near Houston, who asked not to be identified because she didn’t have permission to talk to the media, said her store had to cut more than 200 hours a week. To make the adjustment, the employee’s store manager started asking people to go home early two weeks ago, she said. On Aug. 19, at least eight people had been sent home by late afternoon, including sales-floor associates and department managers.
The employee said she’s covering an area once staffed by multiple people at one of the busiest times of the year -- the back-to-school season. On a recent weekday, she had a customer who had to wait 30 minutes for an employee to unlock a product the shopper wanted to purchase, she said.
The staff at a location in Fort Worth, Texas, were told that the store needed to cut 1,500 hours, according to a worker who asked not to be named for fear of being reprimanded.
So there you have it. Further proof that across-the-board wage hikes - like socialized medicine and free college - is a concept that sounds good when considered in a vacuum, but when implemented is subject to economic realities that conspire to make the end result look far less desirable than proponents might have imagined.
And therein lies the problem. Projecting how these "experiments" might turn out isn't difficult, which makes one wonder how policymakers and corporate management teams seem to get them wrong on a fairly consistent basis. Then again, when you live in a world governed by the principle that the cure for debt is still more debt, it's easy to see why some still believe, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that you can have your cake and eat it too.
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Undergrad economics?
Hummmff.
Having gone to the one of the so called elite universities in the northeast and taken a few courses in economics, I can look back after 40 years and see that it was nothing less than indoctrination.
Economics and American history should be taught with the emphasis on first understanding money, what it is supposed to be and do vs "currency" and how bankers, the FED, and fiat are at the heart of everything from politics to wars to creating the welfare/warfare state.
So forget all that supply and demand, elastic vs inelastic demand crap for now.
Basically, Wal-Mart is being subsidized by the government through huge EBT transfers.
I guess you are an elitist... thinking your indoctrination is confined to your hoity toity Northeast schools. Why, that shit is EVERYWHERE now...
That idiot Andrew Cuomo was bragging that if McDonalds didn't like the $15 wage, then they would have more Burger Kings in NY. The only thing NY is going to get is touch screen ordering kiosks at both places.
The Walmart bashers and unionizers are going to get what they want in the short run and lose in the long run as companies reduce headcount. As a result, Walmart and Amazon are automating fulfillment centers right now as fast as they can to the point that there won't be a human in sight.
Won't work. Each person they replace with a machine is one less customer to a lot of businesses. At some point this too will have a dramatic effect as can be seen in Walmart and other retailers diminishing profits. Like an equation,,, what you do on one side has to be done to the other.
And those machines break,,, a lot! Tell a machine you want extra pickles, no mayo... nope,,, your gonna be stuck with whatever is programmed into the monsters.
Yeah, well the dingbat human operator doesn't get my "extra pickles" order right either. So I'll take the machine any day, if it's cheaper and doesn't pick it's nose before handling my food.
Darn...those unintended consequences bite the bumm again.
It's funny how fast the "market" always works in some situations and never works in others.
No big secret here. Walmart simply caved to the Politically-Correct, pop-culture zeitgeist of the time. Then, they carefully (?) mapped how to circumvent the issue on the 'back end', which is what we're witnessing now. Even from a purely 'PR' perspective, how else - in today's political climate, were they to handle it...?
Seems like business as usual to me.
IMO they raised wages because they needed to to either add or retain decent staff.
People are broke, sales are flat/down, so they cut hours.
I am completely certain that the cut in hours would have taken place even if the increase in wages never did.
And the idea that, by increasing the bottom wage, they will have to increase wages of more experienced/responsible staff presupposes that those staff have other opportunities available that would be an improvement over their current position.
If better paying jobs were available the staff that could would have been leaving anyway; foolish not to.
So tell me, who here saw that coming?
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
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Time to start looking at some automated equipment manufacturers.
The Walmart near me, once stuffed with crap, has just gone through some type of remodel. All the aisle are much wider and length has been reduced. Looks like an inventory reduction probably because nobody is buying as much crap. All I get is what I need to consume in food and as select as possible. Lots of canned (no water needed) soup and refried beans. Those things have store shelf life of 2 yrs and if stored properly much longer.
So what crap are you refering to? Walmart sells a lot of brand name (good) stuff at lower prices. Works for me.
Don't be decieved. I sell test equipment to many brand name companies that sell through Walmart and in many cases the product sold at Walmart is different in someway than the units sold elsewhere. If you're lucky its something stupid like omitting some accessory, but sometimes it stuff like bearing which will decrease longevity. If the vendor's SKU number (not the product model number or product name) isn't same as what you saw at the competitor then there is something different between the product.
When it comes to walmart - you get what you pay for. I don't shop Walmart.
I have a cousing who works for SIG in NH.
The AR rifles they used to sell to WalMart are exactly the same as ones elsewhere.
They do pull that shit with consumer electronics (mostly teevees).
Do you really think Apple has a WMT specific SKU?
I don't shop Walmart either (unless the item cannot be found elsewhere) but it's the same thing everywhere these days. Imported goods (mostly China) on all the shelves. And as I have found out recently, paying more no longer buys you quality.
I buy from Harbor Freight. I figure if they're gonna force me into buying crap why go through a middlemen like Walmart, Kmart, Sears, and the rest?
Or I'll buy direct from China. I find I can purchase the same merchandise for pennies on the dollar (free shipping from China) compared to the scamming vendors locally in the usa.
Don't fear liberals. Barry Ritholtz will reinterpret this in order to deny decades of economic studies (I suggest reading the footnotes for Walter Williams "Race and Economics" chapter 3 and go from there) with another rationalized anecdote.
It's laughable how stupid libtards are, as they cannot understand even the simplest of concepts...
Liberalism is a mind virus... That zombifies people.
It turns people into functional retards.
Americanism is a mind virus... That zombifies people.
It turns people into functional retards.
And yet people will still shop there in support of this valiant business model.
I will now.. I will double fucking down on my Walmart purchases just to spite you and people like you.
Business 101: My goal is to make money.
Business 101: We enter into voluntary employment contracts with employees for which they agree to work for a pre-determined and disclosed payment.
Business 101: When forced to pay more than the value of the output of the employee, I refer you to #1
Now, I must go laugh..
Go talk to those Chinese making $3 per day how business 101 works out for them.
I guess they figure $3 beats 50 cents a day working on the farm.
Money as value is a relative concept while labor is real output. Getting paid $3 for assembling products for 10 hours a day in a clean environment compared to working a muddy rice paddy for far less might look like the opportunity of a lifetime to those presented with that choice.
It only looks like exploitation when your much higher wages enter the picture as a purchaser of the goods that you consider cheap throwaways.
It may be true, but to them it's their life's work providing what the market wants.
Good comment. And just a few years ago we were talking about how they made $2 a day. So their standard of living is rising rapidly.
How is that working out for americans. That's right. Rapidly falling wages and hours.
"raising the minimum for the lowest paid workers to just $9/hour will end up costing the company around $1.5 billion"
As opposed to to the over $3ooo per Walmart employee Walmart currently sucks from the taxpayers because of Walmart workers’ reliance on taxpayer funded programs (about $3 billion).
This from the family that has more wealth than 42% of American families combined.
Fuckin' parasites!
Sounds like you've found a working business model that can lift 100's of thousands out of poverty to boot. When can I start shopping at Crash-N.-Burn-Mart?
Oh? You have no intention to get off your ass and provide a better life for workers and a better product for customers? You just want to whine about the way other people do (since it doesn't measure up to your standards) and complain about the wealth they amassed as a result of ... what? ... oh yeah ... providing people what they want at a price they wanted to pay.
I bet you have an iPhone and goose-step in front of a shrine of Steve Jobs while decrying the free market (as if that's what we have) and demanding wealth redistribution. Eh? Am I close?
Love articles like this. They expose the true idiocy of anarcho-capitalists, and how many aren't much different from the liberal and EBT sheeple.
Just look at the illogic in that post. Mindblowing.
Swing and a miss.
Okay. Too short an answer. Of course I meant I'm not an AnCap. However, looking at several of your other comments you seem to see them under every rock.
That said, I'm not sure you even know what they are if you can equate them with 'liberal' (of course, I'm assuming you mean the modern colloquial use of the term as synonymous with "progressive") or EBT sheeple (assuming you're referring to welfare recipients).
In an anarcho-capitalist society there wouldn't be state supported welfare and progressivism by it's nature requires force and centralization - completely antithetical to anarcho-capitalism (and simple classical liberalism also).
So, rather than just refer to other posts as "illogical" and making nonsense statements (as shown above), you could clarify ... but I doubt that would serve your ends.
But we will see.
Blah, blah. Keep repeating what idiots tell you.
Last time I checked, Walmart paid north of 32% in overall income taxes even though about 30% of their business is overseas and not taxed by the US unless repatriated, So, they are probably paying closer to 40% in taxes on their US businesses, which is off the charts more than most large US companies.
If those people didn't have jobs at Walmart and were sitting at home, they would be taking in the same or even more in government assistance.
This is the same foolish lemming thinking that says a 1200 calorie Starbucks drink and a 1300 calorie Chipotle burrito is somehow better for you than a 400 calorie cheeseburger and 140 calorie can of soda.
The Walton family is wealthy because they created a business that people find of value. They lowered the cost of living for everyone, particularly those on low incomes.
"Blah, blah. Keep repeating what idiots tell you.
Last time I checked, Walmart paid north of 32% in overall income taxes even though about 30% of their business is overseas and not taxed by the US unless repatriated, So, they are probably paying closer to 40% in taxes on their US businesses, which is off the charts more than most large US companies."
Someones repeating idiocy they've heard:
"90 percent of Wal-Mart’s overseas assets are owned by subsidiaries in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, two of the most popular corporate tax havens.
Units in Luxembourg -- where the company has no stores -- reported $1.3 billion in profits between 2010 and 2013 and paid tax at a rate of less than 1 percent, according to the report.....
...Wal-Mart has stepped up its use of offshore tax havens. It has created 20 new subsidiaries in Luxembourg alone since 2009, according to the report.
Wal-Mart employs a popular legal strategy in that country called a hybrid loan. It permits companies’ offshore units to take tax deductions for interest paid -- typically on paper only -- to their parents in the U.S. The parent, however, doesn’t include that interest as taxable income in the U.S.
The OECD has called for an end to the tax benefits of such loans. Luxembourg generated headlines last year after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed its role in cutting the tax bills of hundreds of multinationals."
Wal-Mart Has $76 Billion in Undisclosed Overseas Tax HavensWalmarts' business model is slave labour wage manufacturing combined with tax avoidance while simultaneously getting the taxpayer to subsidize the cost of its' "employees". Remember what a real healthy retail industry looked like? It was prior to Walmart sucking the life out of your town.
Want to shop direct from China, you don't need Walmart taking a cut:
http://tinyurl.com/DirectfromChina
I'm not repeating what I've heard, that is what they paid in taxes. Your logic is failing again. You complained that they got a US tax subsidy. This has nothing to do with that issue at all. This has to do with international taxes, so it doesn't speak to your original point about the US taxpayer subsidizing workers. The Democratic study you initially cited tries to put forth an economic argument, but it is clearly a political piece trying to advance a viewpoint. Democrats are always going to advance legislation in the interest of labor unions who comprise their constituency. I read the study long ago and it is one of the poorest pieces of analysis out there. The comparison of Walmart with Costco was beyond dumb. Totally different consumer served. If Walmart were able to charge $55 a year for people to shop there, they could provide better wages and benefits for their employees, too. The average income of the Walmart customer is less than a third of Costcos.
And surprise, who encouraged and funded the second study you now quote? Well, the labor unions of course who have managed to facilitate the destruction of jobs across the country by inflating the labor cost to a level where it made sense for companies to automate and offshore. Have you seen the inside of an auto plant in the US recently? Mostly robots.
You continue to quote studies that are not independent. They are funded by the labor unions trying to make their point. I am a supporter of workers, but sadly, the unions are fighting the last war in going after Walmart at this point. Amazon has surpassed Walmart in value and is automating their entire supply chain. The net result is going to be fewer jobs but the laboor unions are too dumb to realize that Walmart actually provides more jobs than Amazon ever will.
And how much did they receive in indirect subsidies?
Their workers are on welfare. What you save there you pay in taxes.
Walmart pays much more in taxes than any 'subsidy' they receive. What is your point? The government subsidizes student loans, mortgages, solar energy companies, public transit, public education and tons of other things. They are not subsidizing Walmart, they are subsidizing people with low/no income. Get rid of government assistance and maybe companies will be forced to pay people more and, if they can't because their business models don't work, they will find ways to get by with fewer people.
I guess you would rather see these people unemployed and on full government assistance, rather than working.
Wonderful moral relativity. 'It's crony capitalism, but if anyone opposes it they should still abide by the rules of capitalism.'
And people wonder why America has become a land of pigs and sheep willingly accepting the slow progression of tyranny.
How is Walmart crony capitalism and where is the moral relativity?
Hi khakuda, I'm not sure how the general will respond (or if he will - since he tends to hurl obtuse accusations and move on) but Crash is trying to construct a case that WalMart is a "crony-capitalist" (he doesn't use the term) based on the fact that the US taxpayer is covering a large percentage of their employees with welfare benefits. Supposedly we, as US taxpayers, subsidize WalMart's labor costs this way - as if the absense of those welfare payments would come out of WalMart payrolls.
You're right if you're thinking this makes no sense.
Hahaha. Thanks. You are right, it makes no sense at all. The argument that if Walmart and the jobs they provide didn't exist that the goverment would have less welfare payments? I have news for them. Jobs are good. People getting out of bed and doing things is good. Some jobs are better than others, but any job is better than no job.
I've noticed with all of these socialist types, that you can't actually argue with them. They make a false statement, you call them on it and they respond with an unrelated false statement to change the subject. They won't follow a logical argument with you because they can't or don't want to think logically. They have a point of view, facts be damned.
Wal-Mart may pay to make the rules by having lobbyists influence the legislative process, but ultimately, it is the Congress that allows the tax havens to exist in the first place.
Why blame Walmart for shopping for lower prices like their customers?
We allow Congress to be a mall for manufacturers and resellers to lower their costs. Is it surprising that they would take advantage that the situation presents?
When counterfeiting money and bribery are legal for some but not others, it is not surprising to me that those who are privy to those advantages will use them.
Bad law equals bad results.
Blame the lawmakers.
Agree completely. Nicely said.
Remember, too, on the anti-Walmart side are the labor unions funding self-serving studies and the Democrats who are equally paid off with money and votes to represent these pro-union interests.
I wanted him to explain himself and why for one side it is crony capitalism and for the other it isn't. The one thing I like about ZH is that many of the people are interested in getting at the truth, but the site seems to be filling up with people looking to prove a point of view, facts be damned.
They get a subsidy, the goverment pays part if their workers salary in welfare.
And the government pays all if they have no job, They are saving the government money.
Unknown. They might be working somewhere else. These things are non linear.
They could work somewhere else right now. Since they are not, this must be their best option.
"Save Money. Live Better"
Knock-off allergy pills are .88 cent at Wal-Mart.
I use the savings to buy Versace cologne from Sephora.
It just shows that the saying I coined is forever true...
Libtards know how to feel, but not how to think.
yawn
I think they're on to something. They just need to pay them $450 and hour and then just have them all work one hour a week.
No Social Security increase in 2016!!! The COLA Crowd will be heading to the 'Mart! LOL
Yes, starving Grandma (someone elses Grandma of course) seems to be the popular answer to the nations debt problems. Skies will be blue and the birds singing when they all die off.
I don't get it. I used to run stores (different typs of retail) and always knew exactly what would happen even if I raised one employees salary/hourly rate. This isn't rocket science.
Just replace them with robots. Less people on the .gov dole that way.
Employee turnover costs money: new employees need training and are less productive than employees who have been around a while. If an employer doesn't pay as much as the competition, employees will leave. And this is what has been happening at Walmart--and is the sole reason Walmart raised wages (IT DID NOT DO IT OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF ITS HEART--as some media have suggested).
Symptoms of what ails America revealed in Walmart.
Zion is a scheme, not an ethnicity..
People only qualified to work at Walmart should not be earning $10 an hour.
They're not getting paid for their expertise, they're getting paid for their vote...it's all just a number game.
If a person works hard; should he not be able to eat?
Zion is run by an ethnicity, with shvets goyim puppets used to fool the sheep.
Fixed it for ya.
Voy Gold Forums suck!
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But how much cheesier can Whole Foods grated Parm-Romano cheese be at 26.99 lb. vs. Great Value's Parm-Romano @ 3.76 lb.?
Whole Foods pays good wages and has a good benefits package for it's employees with a big employee discount for purchases. They still shop at Walmart for their food because they can't afford Whole Paycheck on their wages. No kale and quinoa smoothies for you, Whole Foods employees. It's Walmart brand mac and cheese for you.
The bright side is that you get to smell the patchouli oil you can't afford to buy at Whole Foods. Combined with the magical incantations of "Organic" and you have a powerful magnet for the trendy types who consider themselves 'health foodies' waiting to be sheared.
Who's the bigger villain?
At least the Whole Foods employees get to eat too, if they shop at Walmart, if they aren't too jealous that Walmart is now matching their wages even if they cut their fellow retailers hours.
The smart Whole Fooders know they're next on the chopping block as the organic herd thins at their registers. The monthly rent raises are curing the urge to buy 26.99 Parmesan cheese.
We call it Whole Paychecks
Just wait and see what happens to Walmart prices when those $15.00/hour fast food workers hit the store with they new found riches. That's right bitchez, prices will rise until things that were affordable at 7.50/hour are now affordable at $15.00/hour. Then they'll be right back where they started, eatin' (expensive) Doritos driving scooters, lookin' for another Uncle Sugar mandated pay raise.
"when you live in a world governed by the principle that the cure for debt is still more debt, it's easy to see why some still believe despite all the evidence to the contrary, that you can have your cake and eat it too." That only applies to underlings. I have a feeling the Walton family has plenty of cake and eating it to.
They should off-set the loss out their profit stream.
If a CEO's pay is a visible slice of the entire corporate profit pie, wouldn't it make economics 102 sense to fire that person first?
No, because he is an important worker. They will fire the greeters first, as the least important ones.
Isnt one quote from a low level employee commenting on hours a pretty flimsy argument ? Not only that, the story says it was for stores that overspent budgeted hours. Not disagreeing with general loop on the wage increase but the article and title are misleading and poorly researched.
walmart is just a rehash of bargin city in the 60's and 70's. then it was cheap goods from japan, now it's cheap goods from china. walmart will go the way of bargin city. then it will be bla bla mart with cheap goods from africa.
Thanks for sharing your historical vision with us .... you have a great socialist mind .... for the Big Picture ?
Yea,,, but it's fairly accurate. I remember the Jap goods flooding in back in the 1960's. Since American production was still in America it had little effect.
Fast forward to the 1990's when the American corporations abandoned America for cheap labor. With few to no American production it has a profound effect.
I know,,, more historical bullshit. Instead of your asinine response how about sharing your infinite knowlege with the rest of us mere humans.
It takes a village .... think globally .... protection barriers are racist .... share the world .... Walmart reaches out to China .... I love Walmart .... and they have good plastic bags !
Someone should take one of those plastic bags and put it over your head till you expire. You==Useless Americunt eater.
What he meant was those bags are good for sniffing glue. That's why his comments are so retarded.
It´s their fucking business .... not Boviated Blowhards Inc.
I heard most of those fired from Walmart went to work at that company that pays every employee $60,000.
Problem caused by Walmart and other American corporations when they off shored the economy. With consumer debt maxing out,,, discretionary income collapsing and the now outrageous mandatory health corporations leach tax comically called the Affordable Care Act robbing whats NOT left,,, what does anyone expect?
Check out how feel good, politically correct, mushy socialism 'fixes' are working out in Venezuela for a good refresher course.
But protectionism and trade supression are the opposite of socialism, no?
invisible hand
I heard that someone hates Walmart so much they go there often and load up a Shopping cart with all kinds of crap and then leave it in the aisle and walk out of the store. There is no law you have to actually BUY anything.
The same one´s that wear their shit stained pants .... and take pictures of each other .... and post it as typical Walmart shoppers .... socialism is built on a foundation of lies ! Socialism Sucks
WTF are you talking about , dipshit? You don't have a goddam clue what socialism is.
That´s the problem .... nobody knows what it is .... nor how to make it work ? LOL
Raise minimum wage to $100/hr. That way we can watch more people losses to robots.
..........and thin the libtard herd with the help of drug overdoses that would then be easily afforded. That would awesome to watch happen. LMAO
Someone should make a song about Robots Drugs and Dollars....
A sort of anthesis of Lawyers Guns and Money
Voy Gold Forums suck!
Dutch Boy ?
The negroes, Mexicans and others .... I share Walmart´s aisles with .... are some of the nicest people .... in their class, that is !
They should have raised it high enough to put Walmart out of business if they hire part time workers.
Germany kicked out Walmart after 2 years there. Germans won't put up with being treated like dirt the way Americans do.
Classy German´s to import another 800,000 Muslim refugees from Afrika .... there´s your classy, sophisticated Germans .... Euro trash .... Euros. the people (not the money) !
Fuck off you goddam piece of shit Ameritrash monkey. Go upstairs, your crackhore cunt mommy is calling you to change the sheets for her, her client just left.
How do you know his mother takes care of the disabled and incontinent?
My Mom has been dead 28 years .... Dutch Boy .... errr .... Euro Boy must think I´m a young skull full of mush ? LOL
Hey fucktard. Lots of those refugees are also Chrisitans. Not everyone is Muslim you fucking braindead MORON!!!!!!]
Americunts like you are perfect example of true FUCKTARDS.
Hey fucktard. Lots of those refugees are also Chrisitans. Not everyone is Muslim you fucking braindead MORON!!!!!!]
Americunts like you are perfect example of true FUCKTARDS.
Lots .... well that´s pretty vague ?
Tell you what you little fucktard. PROVE there are 800,000 Muslims refugees
Little fucktards like you have never been outside of your trailer park much less country
You are a KNOW NOTHING little punkass RETARD. Like most Americunts
Germany has Aldi.
Germany has Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour, etc etc.
And every German worker gets 25 work day vacation from Day one on the job. Like everyone else in most of Europe.
Its National LAW. and guess what? The stores are stiil making lots of profit.
Nice non sequitur.
What happened was German Oligarchs didn't want competition from Redneck Arkanshit Oligarchs, so they protected their turf. But you're right... it is Federal law (i.e. Walmart had to offer a comparable baseline to Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour).
If you happen to run into of those Aldi, Lidl or Carrefour oligarchs -- tell them to stop price gouging right across the border in Switzerland.
Germany has Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour, etc etc.
And every German worker gets 25 work day vacation from Day one on the job. Like everyone else in most of Europe.
Its National LAW. and guess what? The stores are stiil making lots of profit.
Plus you can scan the Qe code and know that the fish you are buying was caught 3 days ago in the North Sea and then processed in Germany.
At least Hitler gave the Germans back their self respect...
For a while anyway.
Then it was back to dirt.
Germans will put up with anything they're told to put up with.
A nice breeding ground for Sharia law. Sig Heil Mohammed.
The Federal Government should go after these goddamn crooks who send tens,even hundreds of millions and even more on a daily basis to offshore tax-free havens in complex tax avoidance schemes.Until we get politicians with the guts to go after these basturds by changing the tax loopholes you're never going to have an economic recovery.It's a national disgrace to think that ordinary working Americans slave away day after day for these basturds and at the same time the bloody politicians allow billions every year to sit offshore so that these F'n pigs don't have to pay their fair share investing in the future of the U.S. What THE "F" is wrong in Washington?
It's E-Bay.
Sold to the highest bidder.
It's never you or me though. Not enough juice.
The Resourceful Capitalist - Tip of the Day: Mosquito therapy .... let ém bite .... good for narcolepsy, blot clots, neuropathy and angina pain .... it's free blood thinner .... and scratching is excellent .... to stimulate blood flow .... sleep on the back porch naked .... fuck Obamacare !
peopleofwalmart.com
Walmart's entire business model is based upon EBT. If the DNC voter base suddenly lost their benefits, Walmart would be out of business in less than a month.
Walmart is kind of like the old Soviet G.U.M store.
Dutch Boy ?
Monetas= Dipshit boy from Dumfukistan formerly USA.
Less hours and same pay. Not a bad thing unless you need to work a certain number of hours to receive welfare.
Progressive Economic's in Action !!!
Bernie 2016
I don't share the writers obvious satisfaction that a small pay rise results in lay offs. You know, to follow that logic to it's conclusion, in the days before the 1860's, blacks in the South never suffered from unemployment, the only catch is they worked for free. So let's just follow the logic, slash and burn wages until everyone has a job, everyone! Let's live in that world again.
Sometimes people show their total lack of knowledge and understanding. History is no longer taught in US schools, and that is obvious by the short sighted level of thought that runs wild in modern America.
WalMart's wages are low, they must make up a part of a multi member family unit, where three jobs or more support the one household. The race to the bottom in wages is cheered on by corporate types, investors and narrow minded college economics graduates. I have met many of the latter, spouting off what they were taught, though they have no knowledge of any work place, or labor history, of even fundamental physics which governs economics as well as all other things.
A race to the bottom is just that, a race where capital shortsightedly drives wages down until the mass of former customers can no longer afford all the shit the corporations make in China and try and sell.
I would rather have one guy making 60$ an hour at Walmart and 5 unemployed than one worker and 5 "greeters" getting 10$ an hour. If Walmart can afford to fire so many workers they were never needed to begin with and were only getting charity disguised as work while dragging down the salaries of the real workers.
Anyone who is still mentioning greeters is making up lies. Stores haven't had greeters in a long time. That was the obvious first step when hours had to be cut.
Simple supply and demand. They can pay lower wages because there is an excess of unskilled labor to draw on. Lower wages mean less available income for discretionary spending which lowers demand and the need for employees resulting in layoffs in the retail sector.
Welcome to the deflationary death spiral that is the consequence of an artificial prosperity pumping printed money and cheap credit into a system already saturated with debt.
The mockers of the "invisible hand" get disturbed when the hand becomes visible to correct wages and prices that have become distorted due to interventions in the marketplace by outside forces.
Higher minimum wages = lower minimum wage jobs to fill.
Interventionists hate equilibrium, whether it's arrival is slow or fast because it is outside of their control and it reveals the unintended consequences of their manipulations of the marketplace.
Enjoy waiting while that lucky minimum wage holders wage increase makes him fill the lost job of his unlucky cohort in the unemployment line.
Who wins when dictates from on high replace natural market forces?
No one.
Would you volunteer a wage cut to your salary to increase the entry level stock-boy's pay? Everyone will point to the guy upstream from them and say he's the guy who should pay the difference.
No surprise there because ultimately it is the consumer who will pay with slower service because of personnel cuts or inferior products due to cost cutting measures.
Fair or unfair to some, but equilibrium will always win in the end.
In many ways Henry ford was the earliest model for production, but he paid his workers so that could buy the cars they helped build.
Unfortunately, Wal-Mart gets its stuff made in low wage countries, and the pays the workers here a no-significant-value added low skill workers a low wage for America as well.
Unlike slaves, these workers do have a "choice". Many Wal-Mart workers rely on government benefits (paid for by tax payers), and others simply choose not to work and rely on the goverment entirely.
Amazingly, the most significant piece of information out there is that a $27,000 a year female worker with one child with several goverment benefits, enjoys the same living standard as a single person making $69,000 a year who without govvernment benefits pays for those needs with after tax dollars out of pocket!
That would be approximately $13 an hour v/s $33 an hour.
So there you have it. Further proof that across-the-board wage hikes - like socialized medicine and free college - is a concept that sounds good when considered in a vacuum, but when implemented is subject to economic realities that conspire to make the end result look far less desirable than proponents might have imagined."
What a bunch of bullshit.
You're telling me that a lousy $1-$2 per hour raise is creating this kind of headache for the corporate hotshots?
Tell your goddamned "middle management" to suck it up, or beat it; they've been getting plenty, and if they want to hook 'em out to greener pastures, help 'em pack.
Tell your shareholders to suck it up too, for once. People need livings too (not that a lousy $10 an hour is a living wage), and, unlike the racketeers (most of so-called "investing" these days), those people actually EARN IT.
Corporate chieftains? How about YOU taking a bit less to help the old company out for a change? Bet it won't hurt a bit either.
Finally, how about closing a few stores to reduce overhead? I mean, we really don't HAVE to have a frickin Walmart every 3 or 4 miles...DO WE?
THIS is the kind of corporate bullshit (THEY call business) I've been describing in many of my posts. THIS IS the crap that has to go if we are ever to get better...
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Walmart should follow Dan Price's lead and make minimum salary $70k. Then all the top highly productive employees will quit in disgust that the slackers got a big pay rise and Walmart total employee compensation will go down.
Keep lowering cost until Globalisation moves to Africa. These assholes will drop in the hole once the Edward Bernays spending habits change. BLS will elivate. Robots to seek new jobs. Then robots will become unemployed.
You will NEVER see outsourcing to africa. No infrastructure and the niggers are totally unmanageable. Imaging trying to work with only 65 IQ porch apes, who are constantly fighting with each other.
Well, you don't have to imagine. Watch the xmas walmart videos again.
I'm with Jack Burton on this.
And just to add mate, not every fucker on this green and pleasant land can either know, comprehend, understand, or even have a rudimentary knowledge of what us good folk here either have learned, or the very worst wrapped their heads round.
Do you yourselves fucking understand that? Just cos' you work at wal-mart you deserve the lickings of dog eh? Any of you got kids? Do you know what you have let happen in your names then for the kids you will, no doubt, inevitably leave behind? You, the same as me have done nothing bar fuck on an internet site, under fucking idiot pseudonyms as your kids, like mine are left a world ran by paedophiles, satanists, in-bred fucking freemason cunts, and we sat there and did fuck all.
Let that sink in you hateful fuckers giving it big licks to poor cunts working for wankers that you prop up with hard earned mother fucking tax 'Revenue'. And you fucking pay best part of their fucking pitiful wages. We are meant to be fucking human for fucking Dogs sake, not the lowest common denominator.
Fuck me, such hatred for folk, who you might just end up as astounds me, especially on here.
testing a new bot
Walmart is a soup kitchen, you just don't see the line of people next to the building and around the block because they have better parking. They will do anything the government wants to keep the EBT gravy train moving through the checkout.
Hmmm, how strange to say that raising wages is a bad move, since wages have barely risen over the past decade.
The problem is much more complex than higher wages = lower profits = bad. So many more variables are at play: strength of internal currency vs external markets, trade, globalization, etc.
One of the issues is that the US dollar has strengthened relative to most other currencies, being that the 2nd/3rd world countries realize they are the producers, and that the 1st world countries are the consumers (besides China/India). China and India have tried to play the US's game of propping up their own industries through their markets, as well as trying to attract foriegn investements. They are also the manufacturing hub of the world. The combination is daunting.
Manufacturing in the US is on its last legs. Most manufacturing firms are gradually leaving only upper management and engineering in the US, while all the manufacturing and jobs related to managing factory floors, etc. are leaving for China and India and recently Mexico.
The result: less jobs, more competition from foreign companies, strong dollar. This plays directly into wage suppression in the US. If you have to now compete with Chinese and Indian companies, who rip off your products 1 month after you launch more, that cuts into your market presence and also devalues your product. This in turn means you will have to pay your employees in the US less than you should. Consequently, these employees will make less and not be able to spend as much. Since they cant spend as much, the retailers start to see decreasing consumption. Since there is decreased consumption and the retailers, shipping companies are hit, the markets start to react. Then the fed gets involved and starts trying to prop it all up. By propping up their markets, and currency by extension (kinda, this is also more complicated), the manufacturing industry gets hit even harder.
Now lets focus on WalMart. Walmart is a massive US retailer, and thus has the following structure: over paid, over staffed management, and underpaid under staffed everyone else. They have profited in some ways the most from globalization. I know many products that Walmart sells for 5 bucks that they buy for 10 cents.
Unfortunately, if your management is mired in the mindset of "growth growth growth", then you cannot ever start to cut down your management, nor can you cut your managements salaries, and in this depression (yes, its worse than a recession, once the markets correct) where profits are being slashed left and right, and shareholder meetings must show improvement month to month, then slashing hours to make ends meet after a stupid PR move is the only option (in their tiny minds).
For some ZHer's to think that this is somehow an illustration of how companies in retail and credit card transactions cant raise wages, it is only due to bad management that has, for years, made millions off the backs of the working poor and now in harsh economic times, does what they always do: make even more millions off the backs of a few less working poor.
TLDR Version: Globalization, strong dollar, weak consumer, PR move to raise wages = slashing hours so their quarterly earning figure isnt red
Now lets focus on WalMart. Walmart is a massive US retailer, and thus has the following structure: over paid, over staffed management, and underpaid under staffed everyone else. They have profited in some ways the most from globalization. I know many products that Walmart sells for 5 bucks that they buy for 10 cents.
My gosh! If you don't like the wages or the way the company operates, don't work there. Quit! You are free to look elsewhere for a job. If you want charity, go to the Salvation Army.
The Waltons are "worth" 10s of billion.
Walmart made around $16+ billion in 2013. Their employees are encouraged to go on tax payer welfare because they are not paid a meaningful wage.
From the article:
"around 500,000 of which are now set to receive at least $9/hour and $10/hour by Q1 2016"
From Forbes article in April:
"First, we must beware the smoke and mirrors: Walmart is obviously looking to extract the maximum political benefit from its announcement at minimum cost. The company says that its wage increases will impact 500,000 workers, but the number who will see their wages rise from the federal minimum of $7.25 to $9 is much smaller. Only 5,000 of its 1.4 million workers actually make the minimum wage. And the minimum in most of the country, 29 states, is already considerably higher than the federal minimum. Seven states and the District of Columbia have minimums of $9 or higher. So the average pay raise for the affected Walmart workers will be far less than the 24% raise for the very small number currently earning the federal minimum."
"Second, Walmart’s average hourly wage is considerably lower than that in the retail sector as a whole: $11.81, compared with $14.65 broadly. It cannot, therefore, ignore competitive pressures in the wider retail sector labor market."
Another article from the left-wing Forbes mag points out: "Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing."
After saying these are not subsidies to the organization, Walmart apologist Tim Worstall says: "So, yes, the staff at WalMart do get that $6.2 billion in aid." They are in effect subsidies to Walmart. Do you get aid after working full time at your job? I don't.
Lastly, even if this uninformed article were correct, I would say there is something fundamentally wrong with a system in which a few at the top can be "worth" 10s of billions while a majority make shit. Even $15/hr is a barely livable wage, never mind the pennies Walmart throws at its wage slaves.
And if you think there is nothing wrong with that than you are sympathetic to aristocracy. I don't want to live in a Third World oligarchy.
They cut hours numbnuts, because as you've been reporting, the economy is tanking! Duh....
So find me a guy who is willing to take a $100 hit out of his middle management salary to give it to the stockboys.
A lot of those MM types were stockboys at one time. They figure they deserve that salary by working their way up the ladder.
The Waltons don't give a shit because the application basket is filled with people willing to work for whatever they will pay.
The real problem is that there is a surplus of no/low skilled people with no one who needs them and with no money to spend to boost a moribund economy.
It's called a hangover and nobody wants to take the headache and those on the high end of the food chain don't have to, so guess who gets it?
There are consequences for not building marketable skills in a shrinking employment environment and it's a sad fact that nobody owes you anything beyond what you bring to the table.
The non-skittle shitting unicorn world can be a harsh place for the displaced and unskilled.
Don't worry. The Govt. has a program to fix the marketplace they broke. Maybe there will be openings for some more ObamaCare 'guides'.
No experience necessary.
Why do you protect and lick the boots of rich people?
Sucker.
Because... propaganda works. You can get people to cut their own feet off and give them to the rich to eat, or use for ashtrays, with the right propaganda.
I blame it on fluoride in the water. Few thinkers left.
"Undergrad economics" my arse. Libertardian apologetics for big capital needs to take Undergrad POLITICS 101. That's right, Walmart is playing PURE POLITICS here. Or are we to believe that "all of a sudden" WalMart has started to manipulate its workers' schedules at will? Part time scheduling changed at corporate will is the business model MO for retail enterprise.
Can't have it both ways: Complain about a "rigged system" and then cheer on the same rigging when its applied to wage labor!
How exactly are libertarians responsible for the Statist corruptions known as corporations?
They've raised the minimum wage a bunch of times since it was established in 1938. Why are so many people obsessed with trying to predict the effects, when they can actually see what happened? Because maybe they prefer sensationalism.
Also the real (vs nominal) minimum wage peaked in 1968 and was almost $11/hr in today's money.
You are asking the wrong question and arguing the wrong point.
Why does the most prosperous nation have declining standards of liiving?
Why is it not possible to "work your way" through college with a part time job?
Why is it impossible (almost) for 80% of workers to have kids without both parents working (or receiving public benefits) in a majority of the US locations when this was the standard up until the 1980's in most of the US?
Why doesn't the massive increases in technology, efficiency and productivity positively affect the working life of an average American, where we should work less for more and instead we work more for less?
Walmar is a symptom of the problem. The steady devaluation of the dollar over the last 100 years is starting to take root. Companies offshore work to bring items cheaper and offset inflation (and export environmental and wage compliance). Big box shops have allowed the average American to still buy the same products with less money. Keep in mind the quality and quantity of the products has gone down significantly since the start of "offshoring"
No one ever asks why this took root in the first place - is it economically beneficial to remove millions of small businesses, often self-supporting entire families if inflation did not force the issue? Why would the employment of say 5M in small businesses, supporting entire families, be inferior to big box and large retail chain stores that emply 1/3 of that and require public sustinance for the prior self suffficint people?
Right on.
No one ever asks why this took root in the first place
Plenty of people have. You either haven't been paying attention or you don't like the answer.
The short answer is that the ever growing cost of government is sucking the life out of the economy. Much more poverty and suffering to come.
What, higher minimum wages cause inflation? Quick, someone tell the Fed, they've been trying and failing to generate 2% inflation for years now by blowing up the balance sheet.
Who could've seen that coming???
Not mentioned in this rant:
Those receiving a pay increase will have more discretionary funds available to purchase goods and services from other enterprises.
Those receiving a pay increase will decrease the demand for governmental assistance, thereby lowering governmental expenses and taxes.
That's what common sense would dictate. You're too rational.
There were a lot of complaints from the affected workers that they would lose more in entitlements than they stand to gain by the raise.
Yah, right. MUCH better to have all Walmart employees on welfare. Living wages, paid for by the taxpayers (those few left with the ability to pay taxes).