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Wal-Mart calls for minimum wage hike
CNN/Money ^ | 10/25/5

Posted on 10/25/2005 2:29:37 PM PDT by Crackingham

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said he's urging Congress to consider raising the minimum wage so that Wal-Mart customers don't have to struggle paycheck to paycheck. Scott told Wal-Mart directors and executives in a speech Monday that he believes "it is time for Congress to take a look at the minimum wage and other legislation that can help working families."

"The U.S. minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has not been raised in nearly a decade and we believe it is out of date with the times," Scott said. "We can see first-hand at Wal-Mart how many of our customers are struggling to get by. Our customers simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between pay checks."

Given increasing gas prices and other economic pressures on Wal-Mart customers, Scott went on to say that Wal-Mart shoppers will further be challenged to "support themselves and their families."

"While it is unusual for us to take a public position on a public policy issue of this kind, we simply believe it is time for Congress to take a responsible look at the minimum wage and other legislation that may help working families," he said.

Tracy Sefl, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Watch, a group that's been highly critical of the retailer, said Scott's comments on raising minimum wage were "laughable and out of left field."

"I find it disingenuous and laughable that Lee Scott makes these remarks while the company hires lobbyist such as Lee Culpepper who oppose raising the minimum wage," Sefl said.

"We would be the first to applaud real change. But when a comment on raising minimum wage is dashed off and it flies in the face of Wal-Mart's own corporate stance, that's laughable," she added.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; minimumwage; walmart
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1 posted on 10/25/2005 2:29:38 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

Maybe if they'd stop spening all their money on useless crap from Walmart they wouldn't have to live pay-check to pay-check.


2 posted on 10/25/2005 2:31:08 PM PDT by SittinYonder (Flea, feather, bird, egg, nest, twig, branch, limb, tree, and the bog down in the valley - o.)
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To: Crackingham

It seems to me that Wal-Mart should raise its own minimum wage (maybe $8.50), and then many other employers will follow the W-M lead. The popular W-M should also hire more workers to staff their many vacant registers to speed up customer service.


3 posted on 10/25/2005 2:31:48 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: Crackingham

"Don't give our employees more money, but give our customers more money so they can buy crap from China."


4 posted on 10/25/2005 2:32:30 PM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
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To: SittinYonder
Maybe if they'd stop spening all their money on useless crap from Walmart they wouldn't have to live pay-check to pay-check.

Please don't misunderstand this statement ... my wife and children love spending all our money on useless crap from Walmart. I in no way intend to criticize Walmart for offering me just the kind of useless crap my family wants at prices that we can afford.

My point only is that we need less government interference, not more.

5 posted on 10/25/2005 2:32:52 PM PDT by SittinYonder (Flea, feather, bird, egg, nest, twig, branch, limb, tree, and the bog down in the valley - o.)
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To: Crackingham

The "minimum wage" was never meant to be a living wage, because the originators of the concept never expected people to make a career out of flipping burgers at McDonalds.


6 posted on 10/25/2005 2:33:25 PM PDT by My2Cents (Dead people voting is the closest the Democrats come to believing in eternal life.)
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To: Crackingham
Scott told Wal-Mart directors and executives in a speech Monday that he believes "it is time for Congress to take a look at the minimum wage and other legislation that can help working families."

Lee, I have an idea that doesn't require an act of Congress: go ahead and raise your wages right now. Unless the point of your grandstanding is to push for regulations that will harm your competitors more than you, but that certainly isn't the case, is it?

7 posted on 10/25/2005 2:33:28 PM PDT by ThinkDifferent (I am a leaf on the wind)
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To: Crackingham

How stupid. Wal-Mart can raise its wage anytime it wants to.


8 posted on 10/25/2005 2:33:28 PM PDT by Not A Snowbird (Official RKBA Landscaper and Arborist, Duchess of Green Leafy Things)
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To: Crackingham
Sellouts. If they think it's going to do anything to get the collectivists off their backs their dreaming. It's just going to encourage the labor goons to keep up the pressure toward a full cave-in.
9 posted on 10/25/2005 2:33:28 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (California bashers will be called out)
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To: Crackingham

Maybe if they were smarter than rubbing two sticks together, they'd make more than minimum.


10 posted on 10/25/2005 2:34:28 PM PDT by xcamel (No more RINOS - Not Now, Not Ever Again.)
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To: ElkGroveDan

Do that many high school kids shop at Wal-Mart?


11 posted on 10/25/2005 2:34:59 PM PDT by Patrick1
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To: Crackingham

Perhaps Wal Mart could lower their prices, at least for their poorest customers. Maybe Chavez (D, Venezuela) would make up the difference rather than WM having to go, hat in hand, to its chinese bosses.


12 posted on 10/25/2005 2:35:33 PM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com (The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.)
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To: SittinYonder

I say WalMart's customers should quit their low-end jobs paying $5.15/hr, and get high salaried jobs at WalMart.


13 posted on 10/25/2005 2:35:36 PM PDT by My2Cents (Dead people voting is the closest the Democrats come to believing in eternal life.)
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To: Crackingham

Raise it to $6.75 an hour. That's all.


14 posted on 10/25/2005 2:35:48 PM PDT by Perdogg ("Facts are stupid things." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan)
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To: Crackingham

http://jibjab.com/Home.aspx

See Big Box Mart


15 posted on 10/25/2005 2:35:55 PM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestu s globus, inflammare animos)
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To: Crackingham

Might as well say : "WALMART CALLS FOR INFLATION AND HIGHER TAXES".....


16 posted on 10/25/2005 2:36:24 PM PDT by i.l.e. (Tagline - this space for sale....)
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To: Crackingham
arrruuuggghhh.....
The ignorance of basic economics out there just makes me scream..
If you raise the minimum wage to 10.00 per hour, that is still minimum; prices and wages will be base-lined against that. (ie, after the initial short term impact, there will be a net ZERO gain in spending power..)
17 posted on 10/25/2005 2:39:10 PM PDT by mnehring (Cindy Sheehan- The Katy Couric of Al Jazzerra.)
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To: xcamel

Now, now, I never made minimum wage at Wal-Mart. I was hired in at a full dollar an hour above minimum, and by the time I quit to get a real job, was making over twice minimum wage. To top if off, I had only been there 3-4 years, one of which I was on a leave of absence to finish my schooling.

The amount that Wal-Mart pays its employees is irrelevant, what is relevant is the fact that we have yet another schmuck publically announcing that minimum wages are good things.


Total and Utter drivel.


18 posted on 10/25/2005 2:39:39 PM PDT by Kidan (Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions - G.K. Chesterton)
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To: SandyInSeattle

This has nothing to do with whether Walmart can raise their minimum wage...obviously they could.

But they aren't going to do it in a vacuum, by themselves...they are a low cost, high volume, low margin retailer and by raising their paid wages on their own they would be shooting themselves in the foot.

But no matter how many employees Walmart has, theres a much larger pool of Walmart shoppers. Raising the minimum wage by government decree makes ALL employers pay their employees more not just Walmart...it maintains their margins, and give Walmart shoppersf more to spend in the store.


19 posted on 10/25/2005 2:40:25 PM PDT by Ethrane ("semper consolar")
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To: SittinYonder
... my wife and children love spending all our money on useless crap from Walmart.

"What's this?"
"It's useless crap, dear."
"Do we need it?"
"No dear, we don't need it"
"Throw it in the cart"

Amen brother!

20 posted on 10/25/2005 2:41:28 PM PDT by SGCOS
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