Walmart's low wages have been costing taxpayers a lot of money—
around $900,000 a year for a single Supercenter—as workers are paid so little they're forced to rely on government assistance. But now Walmart is giving 500,000 of its workers
a raise, so problem solved, right? Not so fast. A new report from Americans for Tax Fairness shows that many Walmart workers
will continue to be paid so little that they're eligible for programs like food assistance, Medicaid, home energy assistance, and more.
The report considers income eligibility limits for eight programs and finds that:
- Many Walmart workers being paid $9/hour would qualify for public assistance. At $9/hour and 34 hours a week (Walmart’s definition of “fulltime” work), an employee would take home just $15,912/year. This single worker would qualify for three out of five public programs for which they would be eligible. A worker with one or more children would qualify for all eight of the programs studied.
- Many Walmart workers being paid $10/hour would also qualify for public programs. A worker paid $10/hour and working “full-time” at 34 hours a week would take home just $17,680. With two or more members in their household, this worker
would qualify for all eight programs.
If you think workers should be paid enough to live on without food stamps or help paying their home heating bills, the answer is no mystery:
Walmart can afford this—easily. Four members of the Walton family became $20.9 billion richer in the one year between March 2014 and March 2015. Just half of that money would pay for a $5 an hour raise for every Walmart worker in the U.S. Four people would still be $10 billion richer in the space of a year, and 1.3 million people would be making a living wage. But that's not the Walmart way.