10-31-2005, 08:23 AM
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Observer
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 27
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Wal-Mart wants higher wages
Even one of the most anti-worker company in the nation feels workers are underpaid. Is it too much to ask that people be able to feed their families?
It's like I always say....conservatives HATE poor people...with a passion. It's a sad world we live in.
Quote:
Wal-Mart exec calls for US minimum wage hike Wed Oct 26, 3:44 AM ET
The head of retail giant Wal-Mart, beloved by US shoppers for its deep discounts, has urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, stuck for years at barely above five dollars per hour.
In a speech Monday delivered at an annual meeting of company analysts, chief executive Lee Scott said that US lawmakers ought to take a "responsible look" at increasing the minimum wage businesses are legally allowed to pay US workers.
"The US minimum wage of 5.15 dollars has not been raised in nearly a decade, and we believe it is out of date with the times," Scott said.
Wal-Mart, the biggest US employer with some 1.7 million workers, keeps prices low, but has often been criticized for keeping wages and benefits low, too.
While noting that there is "room for improvement", Scott insisted that his company's reputation for underpaying its workers is undeserved.
"We almost always pay better" than competitors do, he said, "but that is often overlooked or ignored in the public debate about Wal-Mart."
Scott resisted the idea, however, of an across-the-board pay hike for Wal-Mart employees, saying that it would cut too deeply into the company's profit margins.
"Last year we earned ten billion in profits, so our critics argue that we should pay more to our associates," Scott said, using Wal-Mart's term for employees.
"But I ask anyone to do the math. Even slight overall adjustments to wages eliminate our thin profit margin," he said.
He noted, however, that the company might stand to gain if Wal-Mart shoppers -- many of whom are of modest means -- had more money in their wallets.
"We can see first-hand at Wal-Mart how many of our customers are struggling to get by," Scott said, noting that some "simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between paychecks."
Last week the US Senate voted down a measure that would have increased the minimum wage by one dollar and ten cents, to 6.25 dollars.
Democrats in Congress said that what's good enough for Wal-Mart ought to be good enough for other employers.
"If Wal-Mart can push for an increased minimum wage, so can the House and Senate leadership," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
And the author of last week's defeated Senate legislation, Democrat Ted Kennedy, used Scott's speech to renew his years-long battle to raise the minimum wage rate, which was last increased in 1997, to 5.15 dollars from 4.75.
"I have pressed for years to secure an increase in the minimum wage for millions of working families in America. The most recent attempt, just last week, was voted down by the Republicans in the Senate, leaving millions of families to continue to struggle to put food on their tables and pay the rent," Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday.
"Many have claimed that an increase in the minimum wage would hurt the business community, and yet as a head of the largest employer in the country with over 1.7 million employees, Mr. Scotts announcement is an important signal, and I applaud him.
Kennedy added: "When even the head of Wal-Mart -- one of the most anti-worker companies in the world -- says that a minimum wage of 5.15 dollars an hour is out of date, we know its long past time for an increase."
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