And still no new jobs! What an anomaly!
Maybe I could go to work at Wal-Mart. . .
Always low prices, always!
Poverty-level labor (legal and otherwise) supports Wal-Mart's low-price slogan
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, with its 1.4 million employees is the largest employer in 21 states. The folksy, homespun, down-to-earth establishment portrays itself as just the kind of place that Andy and Opie would stop by after completing one of their whistling serenaded fishing trips.
The Wal-Mart mantra is: "Always Low Prices, Always!" Nothing wrong with that. But a sweeping crackdown on undocumented workers by federal agents, who arrested more than 300 individuals at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, may provide some additional insight into the Wal-Mart's ability maintain its low prices.
Workers from Eastern Europe, Central America and Asia, hired by contractors to fill cleaning crews, were arrested at 61 stores. Wal-Mart spokesperson Mona Williams denied the retailer having prior knowledge of any wrongdoing. "No, we did not know," Williams said. "Our understanding was that these third-party agencies had only legal workers." Wal-Mart uses more than 100 third-party contractors to perform cleaning services in more than 700 stores, Williams said, and those contractors are required to use only legal workers.
Companies convicted of knowingly hiring undocumented individuals face fines of up to $10,000 per worker. This scarcely seems like a deterrent. The cynic in me believes some bean counter tucked away at the Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas determined that the profit generated from using cheap labor would substantially offset the $10,000 per individual fines if convicted.
Assuming that Wal-Mart was found guilty in all 300 cases, the fine would total $3 million, hardly an exorbitant amount for a company that boast half of Forbes Magazine's ten richest Americans.
The cleaning crews under investigation did not receive health insurance and were paid below minimum wage. Wal-Mart is known for precision in the retailing industry, from which items sell best in each region of the country to the most efficient manner of organizing sale items in order to maximize store profits. Are we really meant to believe that it has no idea that some of its workers are being paid what amounts to slave wages?
Recently the Oakland, Calif. city council took action to prohibit Wal-Mart from opening one of its "superstores" in their community. Oakland, like many other urban areas, is experiencing a budget deficit and high unemployment and could benefit from bringing in a Wal-Mart, which promises jobs and revenue from sales tax. But the hidden social cost associated with Wal-Mart was too much for the Oakland city council to bear.
The Wal-Mart superstores actually have a harmful impact on the local economy. They wipe out mom-and-pop stores and discourage other supermarkets from coming into the neighborhood. Most important, the jobs that Wal-Mart bring to a community depress the wages of workers and offer unaffordable health benefits so that taxpayers have to pay for those workers' health services.
The average Wal-Mart grocery worker earns $8.50 an hour, which results in a below poverty-level annual income of $14,000. By contrast, a union worker at a supermarket earns $17 an hour, plus health benefits.
Wal-Mart may indeed be ignorant to the practices of the contractors who hire undocumented workers. However, one would be hard pressed to disagree that aside from the slightly higher salary, there is little difference in the compensation offered to workers of Wal-Mart undocumented or otherwise. And, in addition to the poverty-level wages and offering unaffordable health benefits, Wal-Mart undersells it competitors by importing goods made by cheap foreign labor.
Ironically, only the undocumented workers have been arrested. No one at Wal-Mart or any of the third-party contractors have been incarcerated to date. If prison time for employers was a possible penalty for such infractions, it might shift the risk versus reward analysis when hiring undocumented workers at abominable wages. But, as columnist Bob Scheer points out, "enforceable sanctions would be opposed by most major business associations because employers would no longer be able to find a vulnerable labor force to exploit."
While Wal-Mart and its contractors stand to receive fines, they amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Those who were paid almost nothing, without health benefits, to clean toilets were arrested. At least Wal-Mart will always have low prices. Always.
Byron Williams writes a weekly political/social commentary at Byronspeaks.com. Byron serves as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church.
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