Several flaws in this analysis: First is the assumption that all of Wal Mart's employees getting food stamps will spend all of that money buying their groceries at Wal Mart. There are competing grocery stores and many low income people also buy food at convenience stores. Second, there are no costs associated with the issuing processing and other bureaucracy administrating the food stamps. The assumption is that a dollar of additional wage will translate into a dollar less of food stamps. Third there are no assumptions for taxes. Boosting a Wal Mart worker's wage to $11.81 will mean they will pay more in federal,state and local taxes and could well mean they have LESS disposable income to spend. For example that single mother cited in the video could at the higher wage lose earned income tax credits, free school lunches for her kid and a host of other social safety net programs. One big factor could be Medicaid eligibility. Depending on the state, boosting the wage to $11.81 might be too much income to qualify for Medicaid and force our single mom to look to subsidized Obamacare for her health insurance. However, the Obamacare subsidies are fickle and at that wage she might not qualify for the subsidy and not be able to afford any of the insurance options in her state.
There also is no information provided on how the 1 cent increase in the price of mac & cheese is calculated or how the cost of other goods sold at Wal Mart might be affected. Grocery stores typically operate on razor thin profit margins so Wal Mart might not have any slack in order to pay more.
Finally worker productivity is not part of this calculation. To pay a worker $11.81/hour means on average that worker will have to generate MORE than $11.81 of revenue for every hour worked. To boost productivity Wal Mart might well reduce the number of employees or even automate positions. For example Wal Mart already has self checkout at many stores and could just fire cashiers and have just one cashier now supervising 4 or 5 self checkout stations.
To pay a worker $11.81/hour means on average that worker will have to generate MORE than $11.81 of revenue for every hour worked.By the time you add in costs for accounting, the other half of social security, management, etc. figure the employee should bring in 3 times their wages in revenue.