Welfare for Wal-Mart

Without additional comment, I pass along a message from my editor friend Hilary Hinzmann:

Perhaps you've heard that Wal-Mart regularly forces store employees to work off the clock. Here is some context.

Wal-Mart's low-wage policies mean that every two-hundred-employee Wal-Mart store costs U.S. taxpayers about $420,000/year in social welfare expenditures ($2,103/employee), including:

• $108,000/year for the healthcare of the employees' children
• $125,000/year in tax credits for the employees' low-income families
• $42,000/year in housing assistance

Total welfare bill for Wal-Mart's cheap labor practices: $2.5 billion/year.

Wal-Mart's net sales for 2003: $256.3 billion.

Wal-Mart's net income (profit) for 2003: $9 billion.

What Wal-Mart says about its store employees ("Associates"):

"When Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., he established the Three Basic Beliefs to which we remain firmly committed:

• Respect for the Individual
• Service to our Customers
• Strive for Excellence

The Three Basic Beliefs go hand in hand with the integrity and ethical conduct that is the foundation of our business."

"People often ask, 'What is Wal-Mart's secret to success?' In response to this ever-present question, in his 1992 book Made in America, Sam Walton compiled a list of ten key factors that unlock the mystery. These factors are known as Sam's Rules for Building a Business."

"Rule 2: Share your profits with all your Associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in a partnership. Encourage your Associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did."

Wal-Mart Statement of Ethics: "Wage and Hour: It is a violation of law and Wal-Mart policy for you to work without compensation or for a supervisor (hourly or salaried) to request that you work without compensation. You should never perform any work for Wal-Mart without compensation."

Sources:

Welfare costs--Data from U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee, cited by Simon Head in The New York Review of Books.

All other information--www.Wal-Mart.com.