[Theodore R.]

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.

[Trust but Verify]

Now there are a couple of winning ideas. I might even shop at such a store!

[spinestein]

[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.]



Sure, they could pay their shelf stockers and register jockeys $8.50 an hour when the typical fair market price of such work is $6.50 an hour, but then the people who are now making $8.50 will want $10.50 and the ones who are now making $10.50 will demand $12.50 and so on, all the way up the wage chain.

The next thing that will happen is that since everybody will have so much more money to spend, prices will go up proportionally and the inflation rate goes up until prices catch up to where the wages went and then everything will be back to where it started...except people's savings won't be worth as much.

It would probably be easier for congress to just pass a law decreeing an immediate decrease of the value of everyone's savings by 10%, because the result will be the same.

[Gabz]

It seems to me that Wal-Mart should raise its own minimum wage (maybe $8.50), ......

Where I live the starting hourly wage at WM is $9.00

The popular W-M should also hire more workers to staff their many vacant registers to speed up customer service.

Sounds like a management problem, it is rare I have to wait any length of time at checkout in the local WM, if all front registers are open and busy, they start sending customers to the registers in the garden/seasonal section, or to automotive.