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"The U.S. minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has not been raised in nearly a decade and we believe it is out of date with the times," Scott said.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 ...
Or do you believe that shareholder wealth is the only driving factor in a corporation and if so, where do ethics come in, especially if having ethical conduct will hamper shareholder wealth?
Regardless of the fact that this is an unethical socialist intervention by the government? Says a lot then.
It's called corporate welfare, if you look, for example, at who are now the biggest pushers for socialized medicen, its the biggest companies in America.
Nah, don't think so, can't make sense of you post. I think you were replying to someone else, that or you put words in my mouth I did not say. Either way, G'day.
Why not $20.00 and hour? When is enough enough. What about giving eveyone a house on the beach. Do not go down this road. The Free Market will handle it or we will wind up a third world country.
Long enough for the average corporate planning session. Remember, our genius CEOs usually only plan out a little past their noses, two or three quarters, rarely a year at best.
RAISE YOUR OWN WAGES WALMART! JEEEEZZZ
Free market bump!
Then they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Like that:
Slim to none. You can thank unions for that.
so just out of curiousity, how much does it cost walmart guys when someone uses their food stamps/ other welfare handouts?
Why doesn't this genius just run for office and implement the plan himself. Some of these CEOs lately! I am starting to wonder if you have to pass a moron exam before you qualify to lead a company.
Gee, Lee, go ahead and pay all those worthy employees $10/hr. No one's stopping Walmart from paying their work force what they want. Walmart can afford it, but the small businessman can't and may have to cut employees or go out of business.
Two Points: Wal-Mart can raise it's pay on its own. By attaching their payscale to the minimum wage, Wal-Mart is confirming they are willing to pay only the minimum required by law and will only raise pay if the minimum wage is raised.
Another, more important point is that Hillary! is on Wal-mart's board and this may be part of a political scheme to help her political goals. She is getting Wal-Mart to be her mouthpiece> Wal-Mart raises the issue as a trial baloon and Hillary! gets to see how the wind blows before responding publicly for a minimum wage hike. It shows she is politically calculating and proves she will pursue socialist, poll driven policies
What a publicity ploy, Wal-Mart can say oh we are for higher wages, but the government refuses to cooperate. Then, they have the memo to hire as many healthy people as they can. Give me a break.
If that were true, wages would be rising for those menial jobs do to the short supply of labor and the shortage would be resulting in all the working people making plenty of money to buy stuff at Walmart. Everybody's wages would be so high that there would be no need to raise the minimum wage and if they did it would be irrelevant.
Hey, thanks for explaining economics so lucidly. You have obviously given this a lot of thought. Could you help me out with one more thing that has been troubling me, I would like your help in understanding this. Why is the earth flat?
I guess that wasn't you, right?
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