ON THE MINIMUM WAGE: ARE THE WALTON'S THE POSTER CHILDREN OF GREED?

Raymond Burse

Recently, Raymond Burse, the President of Kentucky State University, asked to reduce his $350,000 salary by $90,000 a year.  His reason for taking this large salary cut was to allow the university to raise the wages of the 24 lowest paid employees. 

The State of Kentucky minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour; these 24 employees now earn $10.25 per hour.  Yes, he lowered his salary more than 25% a year to help only 24 people!  

When asked why he did it, President Burse related that he was the youngest of 13 children in his family, and that while growing up to sacrifice was a normal part of life. 

Christy Walton

According to the Forbes Magazine list of 400 richest Americans published recently, Christy (6th), Jim (7th), Alice (9th), and S. Robson (10th), four Americans who share the last name Walton, are worth approximately $143.7 Billion. Christy has $38 Billion, Jim gets by on $36 Billion, Alice survives on $34.9 Billion, and S. Robson ekes out life with a mere $34.8 Billion. 

Alice Walton

How did they earn this much money? Christy chose to marry John Walton, who died in 2005. John and his siblings earned their wealth through birth. Their father was a gentleman by the name of Sam Walton, who died in 1992. Sam Walton built the ubiquitous Walmart and Sam's Club chains.

The kid's inheritance, Walmart, is estimated to employ about 2.2 million people worldwide, catering to the needs of 100 million customers each week. They employ approximately 1% of all working Americans, 1.4 million people. In their 2014 annual report they claimed yearly sales of more than $476 Billion. If they were a country they would stand as the 19th largest economy in the world, with a profit margin of 3.41%, around $16.2 Billion.

Jim Walton

If the world was filled with more leaders like Raymond Burse,  and fewer with the mindset of the Waltons, our legislators could easily reduce the funds for some of our anti-poverty programs like Medicaid and Food Stamps. 

Let us look at the Waltons as an example of what just one U.S. company could do.  If these four billionaires gave up 25% of their yearly profit, about $4 Billion would be available to provide all of their U.S. employees with an immediate $2,850 pay raise each year. Economists believe this money would be immediately spent on basic goods and services. And, they would probably purchase many of these goods from Walmart stores, essentially putting the money back into the Walton's pockets. 

S. Robson Walton

The pay raise would also likely make Walmart employees ineligible for the approximately $2.66 Billion in Federal government poverty assistance they now receive, according to figures from Paddy Ryan of the Daily Kos.  Ryan estimates the amount is equal $420,000 in aid per store. In many states Walmart employees are the top recipients of Medicaid services, while as many as 80% use food stamps or SNAP to feed their family. 

If the Waltons, like President Burse, gave up 25% of their wealth for their employees, about $36 Billion would be available for bonuses for U.S. employees of approximately $30,000 each. Would that not make a nice Christmas for Walmart employees? 

Mr. Greedy

So, knowing this, why would the Waltons not want to lift Walmart employees in the U.S. out of poverty? Why would they not want to give their employees a small pay raise so they could spend more money in Walmart?

For those who are about to scream, "These are entrepreneurs and job creators they shouldn't have to give up anything!"  Let me remind you that the only reason the four Waltons have this much money is that three of them happened to be sired by one man named Sam; and the richest of them married the son who liked to fly experimental airplanes!

The minimum wage at Walton's money mill needs to be raised to $15 per hour. And it needs to be done now.  The only possible answer to why the Walton family does not is greed...simple, unadulterated, unvarnished GREED!