Lets say the average employee makes $10.00/hr. That comes out to annual cost of $46B. Lets give every employees a 50% raise! so now annual cost is $69B, a $23B increase in labor costs.
So compared to gross revenues how does that $23B stack up?
$23B/$469B = 5%. So I am not advocating a 50% increase in salary only showing that 50% increase across the board salary increase would cause a one time 5% increase in the retail price. This is not earth shattering.
you ignore that gross revenue and net revenue - profit - have a relationship but are not the same thing
current walmart profits - money it can keep after it spends all it has to spend - amounts to under 3 cents on each dollar of revenue
the profit question is not what an additional cost does to cutting from gross revenue, or even as a % of gross revenue, but what is the impact on net revenue - it could get even further down on the pennies per dollar of gross revenue
if it was all across the board (which it may not be), it would be asking Walmart to take a 5% hit on its profits
but you suggest what might be even worse, for the company, in terms of its long term competitiveness and staying in business - a five % increase in its prices
that will not increase gross revenue by 5%, it could even cost a hit in gross revenue, as Walmart would lose some sales on items where the margins in both prices and profits is already slim
the problem is not walmart, the study defining it as intentionally paying so little so its employees will get government subsidies is a bogus study