Walmart Could Pay $6/Hour More If They Redirected Their Stock Buy Back To Wages

[pam4water]

Transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/26/as_wal_mart_workers_plan_record

It's a long clip Some highlights form the transcript below.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: You have also pointed out that Wal-Mart is aware they pay about 825,000 workers more or less poverty wages. So, how is this justified? Have you spoken people at Wal-Mart and gotten a sense of how they can justify this?

CATHERINE RUETSCHLIN: It’s true. Wal-Mart’s CEO — Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon, back in September, in a presentation to Goldman Sachs was actually responding to the workers demands and calling out, as they called out Wal-Mart for fair wage, and saying, hey look, we have 425,000 workers who earn the wage that you’re asking for. But, Wal-Mart is the largest employer — the largest private employer in the U.S. That leaves 825,000 low-wage employees...

They are saying about 425,000 workers earn a living wage over $25K. That leaves about 2/3 at or below the poverty line.

CATHERINE RUETSCHLIN: ... Wal-Mart earned $17 billion in profits last year... What Wal-Mart did with a pretty substantial portion of it last year was go into the stock market and repurchase their own shares. What that did was consolidate ownership, it gave the Walton family heirs a greater than 50% stake in the comedy for the first time, and it bumps up earnings-per-share. But, that is kind of a short-term Wall Street maneuver that over time doesn’t actually represent a productive investment in the firm... If they, instead, took the $7.6 billion that they used to buy back their own shares and used it to invest in their workforce, they could actually give a raise amounting to almost six dollars an hour for all 825,000 of those low-wage workers.

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BARBARA COLLINS: That’s right. A recent report showed that every single Wal-Mart in the country cost taxpayers between $900,000-$1 million in support for poverty alleviation programs like critical health care for workers and their families. The Walton’s see this as a huge subsidy to their company, but they could be making a better business decision. They are part of this organizing against government’s intervention in the workplace...