I certainly didn't say that Walmart should legislate... if THEY want to pay their workers more, then they are at liberty to do it. You wanted to know why they would call for that - I'm just pointing out that it's not new for companies to consider that course. Henry Ford payed workers over twice what other factories were paying, and he got a lot of flack for doing that.
But Ford did it on his own - he didn't ask the government to do it. He saw the long term profit in paying his workers enough to buy his cars. Walmart caters to the lower classes - if they can't even make monthly bill payments, they won't have the cash to shop at Walmart. It's not rocket science.
But instead of calling for the government to make laws, they should just do it..
It is one thing for Wal-Mart to decide to raise the pay of their own employees. It is entirely something else for them to call on the government to raise the minimum wage for everyone. Government is force.