New Report: Real cost of Wal-Mart

Posted by on April 30, 2004

Wal-Mart Stores Add To U.S. Tax Burden Wal-Mart workers are dependent on federal poverty programs for their support.

Wal-Mart is costing American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) The company’s poor pay and benefits packages are causing workers to rely on the U.S. government to help them meet expenses for housing, medical, childcare and energy, says a new report by the congressman. “Wal-Mart’s slogan should be, ‘Always low wages, always,’ ” says Miller, the senior minority member on the Education and Workforce Committee, whose committee staff prepared the report. “There’s no question that Wal-Mart imposes a huge often hidden, cost on its workers, our communities and U.S. taxpayers,” Miller claims. “Wal-Mart is in the driver’s seat in the global race to the bottom, suppressing wage levels, workplace protections and labor laws.” Taxpayers pick up $420,750 per year for each Wal-Mart store employing 200 people, says the report. The costs include $36,000 for free and reduced lunches for 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families; $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store’s employees qualify for such assistance; $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children; $100,000 a year for additional Title I education funds, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families, each with an average of two children, qualify; $108,000 a year for children’s health insurance costs, assuming 30 employees, each with an average of two children, qualify for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and $9,750 a year for subsidies for energy assistance for low-income families. The report blames Wal-Mart with a plethora of anti-worker practices, including union-busting activities, discrimination against women and disabled workers, violation of child and undocumented labor laws, unpaid overtime and unsafe workplace policies, like locking workers into stores overnight. “Wal-Mart has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits and critical media scrutiny on all of these issues,” says Miller.

The report is located at http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf.