Don't troll me. Paul Krugman is human, after all. And the funny thing is that he's actually too kind to Wal-Mart in
his column this morning.
Kevin at Always Low Prices is not very happy with the column. He zeroes in on this line:
The average full-time Wal-Mart employee is paid only about $17,000 a year.
Kevin compares Krugman's number to the Wal-Mart class action lawsuit numbers and finds that this number is low even compared to the court's 2001 data.
What Krugman SHOULD have done is give the average salary of all Wal-Mart workers. As
Kevin himself recently noted, the percentage of full-time workers that Wal-Mart is willing to admit to has dropped recently from 74% to "over half." Even that figure assumes you can trust Wal-Mart to be honest about this. Furthermore, you have to remember that Full-time work at Wal-Mart can be as little as 34 hours/week.
Here's Wake-Up Wal-Mart on the real annual wage of a typical Wal-Mart worker:
Wal-Mart does not report an average wage covering all of its hourly employees. The average supermarket employee makes $10.35 per hour (Charles Williams, "Supermarket Sweepstakes: Traditional Grocery Chains Mull Responses to Wal-Mart's Growing Dominance," The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) 16E, 11/10,03). Sales clerks at Wal-Mart, on the other hand, made only $8.23 per hour on average, or $13,861 per year, in 2001. Some estimate that average "associate" salaries range from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour ("Unaffordable Health Care, Low Wages, Sexual Discrimination - the Wal-Mart Way of Life,"
http://www.ufcw.org/workplace_connections/retail/industry_news/index.cfm, 1/26/04). With an average on-the-clock workweek of 32 hours, many workers take home less than $1,000 per month (Doug Dority, "The People's Campaign: Justice@Wal-Mart," Air Line Pilot 55, 2/03). Even the higher estimate of a $13,861 annual salary fell below the 2001 federal poverty line of $14,630 for a family of three (Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week 100, 10/6/03).
This payroll analysis also reports that sales associates, which is by far the most common job classification, earn on average $8.23 per hour for annual wages of $13,861. This is about 15 percent less than the annual average of $16,202. Based on these figures, sales associates work approximately 32 hours per week on average. Cashiers, which is the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 for annual wages of $11,948. This is about 26 percent less than the annual average of $16,202. Based on these figures, cashiers work approximately 29 hours per week on average. Combined, sales associates and cashiers account for more than a third of all Wal-Mart jobs (Drogin 2003).
Paul, you're a genius and it's great to have you on board. But if you're looking for more help bashing Wal-Mart, I know some really nice union folks who would be delighted to help you out.
JR