Thread: The World's Largest Private Employer to Raise Starting Wage to $11

San Diego's Minimum Wage Increase Compared To California's

Date	San Diego	California
07/2016	$10.50	I
1/2017	$11.50	$10.50
1/2018	I	$11.00
1/2019	$11.82*	$12.00
1/2020	$12.15*	$13.00
1/2021	$12.49*	$14.00
1/2022	$12.84*	$15.00

* If the Consumer Price Index grows in each year at 2.8%, the average rate of growth from 1982 to 2016. Source: Center on Policy Initiatives.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/jul/01...wage-increase/

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Sam's Club closing 63 stores, cut 10,000 jobs

Walmart stated they were raising their wages and doing some other things as well including bonuses and expanding maternity and parental leave benefits because of the tax cuts with more to come. They had already raised their raise to $10 after training last year to compete with Target. It wasn't that I liked or disliked the message, the Time magazine message was wrong.

MSM colluded to try to defeat the tax cuts. They had a parade of lies about the impact of the tax cuts on the poor and middle income earners claiming they would have tax increases. Not only do they realize tax cuts, they realize other benefits as well.

There's a Big Reason Walmart Just Raised Its Minimum Wage to $11. It Has Nothing to Do With Tax Cuts

By IAN SALISBURYJanuary 11, 2018

On Thursday, Walmart raised its minimum wage to $11 an hour from $9, citing the trillion-dollar tax cut signed late last year by President Donald Trump.

The company also expanded its maternity and parental benefits and said some employees would be eligible for a cash bonus of up to $1,000. “Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.,” the company said.

The move is certainly good publicity. (While President Trump hasn’t yet tweeted to crow about the move, past experience suggests it may only be a matter of time.) But taxes are hardly the whole story.

In fact, with unemployment at just over 4% and workers’ real wages finally rising after years of sluggishness, the giant retailer might not have had much choice, regardless of what transpired in Washington last month.

Indeed, Walmart had already raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2015, and at the start of 2017 halved the length of the training period workers needed to complete in orders to get a raise to $10. And a Walmart spokesman acknowledged via email that the company had already planned an upcoming wage increase in “select geographies” — although he said there was no across-the-board hike planned prior to passage of the tax law.

One company putting direct pressure on Walmart is its superstore rival, Target, which raised its own minimum wage to $11 a little over three months ago. And if that didn’t put enough heat on Walmart, Target also said it plans to pay workers a minimum of $15 by 2020.

At the time, Target’s move prompted some observers to predict Walmart would react immediately. “The news that Wall Street analysts, bond investors and Wal-Mart’s competitors all feared on Tuesday didn’t happen,” wrote Investors Business Daily in mid-October. “The worry was that Wal-Mart, facing the same kind of wage pressures as Target amid 4.2% unemployment, would have to embark on a new round of pay increases.”

In other words, while Walmart employees should certainly be happy to take home a little more, whatever the reason, shoppers should take the verbiage from the company’s executives with a big grain of salt.

http://time.com/money/5098953/walmar...wage-tax-cuts/

Tax reform bonuses to lift retail stocks, Barclays says, upgrades Target, Lowe's

Barclays upgrades Lowe's to overweight and Target to equal weight based on fatter wallets expected from the Republican tax cuts.

"A potentially overlooked story that's developing could be the amount of stimulus about to be released upon consumers by all U.S. corporate actions regarding employee pay/bonuses from the tax reform," analyst Matthew McClintock says.

Thomas Franck
Published 8:44 AM ET Fri, 5 Jan 2018 Updated 4:08 PM ET Fri, 5 Jan 2018 CNBC.com

The retail industry is about to get a big boost from Republican tax cuts, setting the sector up "exceptionally well" in the new year, according to one of Wall Street's biggest banks.

Barclays raised its rating on Target and Lowe's stocks on Friday, citing numerous benefits for the retail sector as a result of the tax overhaul.

"A potentially overlooked story that's developing could be the amount of stimulus about to be released upon consumers by all U.S. corporate actions regarding employee pay/bonuses from the tax reform," analyst Matthew McClintock wrote in a note to clients.

The analyst compared the current GOP measure to one passed under President George W. Bush in 2001, when sales growth at retailers surged in the months following tax relief thanks to an influx of cash into the economy.

"We believe that these 'windfalls,' whether through unexpected pay raises or one-time bonuses will flow largely through discretionary spend, particularly big ticket items," he said.

Shares of Target and Lowe's closed up 1.1 percent and 2.1 percent respectively following the call.

McClintock upgraded Lowe's to overweight and Target to equal weight largely based on his belief that more companies will follow others in offering employees higher pay or bonuses in light adjustments to a low corporate tax rate. A key component of the Republican plan cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent in an effort to make the U.S. more competitive.

"We expect retailers are now increasingly likely to follow Target's lead in going to a $15 minimum wage by 2020, especially given the tight labor market combined with accelerating sales," McClintock wrote.

He noted that the two retailers deserved rating upgrades not only because of the expected stimulus, but also because they appear able to navigate around competitors in e-commerce.

"The Amazon competitive threat becomes slightly less worrisome as many traditional retailers will likely have more room to invest in price," he said.

McClintock's $120 price target on Lowe's represents 29 percent upside from Thursday's close, while his $70 target on Target is 6 percent higher.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/05/tax-...get-lowes.html

Why Walmart's bait and switch matters

By Jonathan Tasini
Updated 9:39 AM ET, Sat January 13, 2018

(CNN)If the man sitting in the Oval Office honestly admitted he made his fortune from exploiting thousands of people, he'd likely be enraged when people pointed out he's small-time compared to the Walton family. Year after year, the Walmart heirs prove no one comes close to their brand of exploitation, which they wrap in public relations fluff and deception.


Jonathan Tasini

This week was no exception. With much fanfare, Walmart announced it was raising its minimum starting wage to $11 an hour (from $10) and giving eligible workers a $1,000 bonus, tying its munificence to the recent Republican tax cut. The business media covered the story.

Yet that wasn't the only news Walmart made public.

On the same day, Walmart, with far less fanfare, also announced it would close dozens of Sam's Club wholesale stores, laying off thousands.

But there's a lot more to the story.

A number of companies, principally in the retail sector, are raising wages not because of their corporate generosity but simply because they need to compete for workers. With the unemployment rate relatively low (even as lots of people are still out of the labor force compared to pre-recession), basic economics dictates that workers will usually have more choices to look for higher pay.



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Target, for example, announced it was raising its starting wage to $11 per hour in September 2017, and says it will raise it to $15 an hour by end of 2020.

That was a move taken long before the tax cut was even in final draft form. So, Walmart's contention that the wage hike move is an outcome of the tax cut doesn't wash.

There is also a heavy dose of self-congratulation here, as if by doling out money, Walmart should earn a medal. But, let's look closely at the reality. If you worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at $11 per hour, with not a shred of time off, you would earn $22,880. The federal poverty rate for a family of four is $24,600 -- and the formula for the official poverty rate understates the difficulty of surviving at that income level.

And about that $1,000 bonus. Aside from the one-time nature of the payout that does nothing to boost workers' basic pay, a worker only qualifies for the full amount of that bonus after 20 years at the company. Walmart's high turnover rate means a very tiny percentage of its 1.5 million US workers will ever see the money. It's simply an almost cost-free PR stunt.



America needs higher wages, not lower taxes


The Walmart heirs, a handful of people, were collectively worth in November 2017 well over $150 billion. For context, the federal minimum wage should be $19 per hour based on productivity over the last four decades. In fairness, the underpayment of workers compared to how productive they have been, and the shamefully low level of the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, is a scandal engaged in by the government and sustained by thousands of companies, not just Walmart.

But, to top it off, while it trumpeted the piddling wage increase, the company was stabbing its Sam's Club workers in the back.

This entire approach is consistent with a company that is accused of hushing up bribery and is the target of a broad class-action suit on gender discrimination.

It has been the defendant in scores of cases, including class actions, or group suits, accusing the company of wage-law violations. Unlike other retailers, it would not sign on to a safety code in Bangladesh after the horrific 2012 fire at a facility where 55% of the product was destined for Walmart shelves. And, finally, taxpayers effectively underwrite the company through subsidies and Walmart workers' reliance on food stamps, health care and other support because their paychecks don't cover basic needs.

As the country's largest private employer, Walmart is often pointed to as the trendsetter. That is probably true, but perhaps not in the manufactured, rosy image its corporate executives and some in the Republican Party try to project. Walmart makes its profit by exploiting poverty -- the poverty of its workers and the communities where Walmart stores are often the only option. It's a business model that has steadily robbed workers and undermined the country's long-term prosperity.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/13/opinio...ion/index.html

It's pretty obvious why wages were flat and static during the Obama years when you have DemoQuacks like Tasini criticizing companies who raise their wages, pay bonuses and increase their benefits packages.

Amazon raises minimum wage to $15. for all US employees