Reverend Billy at Vallejo Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world with over $10 billion in profits. Yet, Wal-Mart lowers our wages, ships our jobs overseas, and shifts their health care costs onto American taxpayers. We believe it's time for Wal-Mart to Wake Up. The Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign is a grassroots movement of Americans who believe by joining together in common purpose we can change Wal-Mart and build a better America. Sign up and take action NOW! http://wake-upwalmart.com

Wal-Mart Wages
Below the Poverty Level. In 2002, the federal poverty line for a family of three was $15,020 (Department of Health and Human Services.) Using the above estimates, a vast majority of Wal-Mart employees would be eligible for government programs. By paying wages that are below the poverty line and therefore forcing employees to rely on government welfare programs, Wal-Mart shifts costs to taxpayers, communities, and responsible employers.

Determining Real Wal-Mart Wages. Wal-Mart does not report an average wage covering all of its hourly employees. The average supermarket employee makes $10.35 per hour (Charles Williams, “Supermarket Sweepstakes: Traditional Grocery Chains Mull Responses to Wal-Mart’s Growing Dominance,” The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) 16E, 11/10,03). Sales clerks at Wal-Mart, on the other hand, made only $8.23 per hour on average, or $13,861 per year, in 2001. Some estimate that average “associate” salaries range from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour (“Unaffordable Health Care, Low Wages, Sexual Discrimination – the Wal-Mart Way of Life,” http://www.ufcw.org/workplace_connections/retail/industry_news/index.cfm, 1/26/04). With an average on-the-clock workweek of 32 hours, many workers take home less than $1,000 per month (Doug Dority, “The People’s Campaign: Justice@Wal-Mart,” Air Line Pilot 55, 2/03). Even the higher estimate of a $13,861 annual salary fell below the 2001 federal poverty line of $14,630 for a family of three (Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, “Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?” Business Week 100, 10/6/03).

This payroll analysis also reports that sales associates, which is by far the most common job classification, earn on average $8.23 per hour for annual wages of $13,861. This is about 15 percent less than the annual average of $16,202. Based on these figures, sales associates work approximately 32 hours per week on average. Cashiers, which is the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 for annual wages of $11,948. This is about 26 percent less than the annual average of $16,202. Based on these figures, cashiers work approximately 29 hours per week on average. Combined, sales associates and cashiers account for more than a third of all Wal-Mart jobs (Drogin 2003).

Wal-Mart and family budgets. The federal poverty line is used to determine eligibility for government programs and is based solely on food costs and the share of income families spent on food in the 1950's. Therefore, the federal poverty line underestimates the current cost to live. “Basic family budget” estimates are more accurate by reflecting the income a family needs for a safe and decent standard of living. “Basic family budgets” calculate the costs for every major budget item, including housing, childcare, healthcare, food, transportation, and taxes. Using government data, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that the national median family budget in the United States for a two person family (one-parent and one-child) in 1999 was $23,705 (“Poverty and Family Budgets” online at http://www.epinet.org).

Wal-Mart’s average annual wages clearly fall below this basic threshold. In fact, Wal-Mart’s average wages would not even adequately support a two-person family in rural North Dakota, which was the most inexpensive place to live in with a basic family budget of $17,067.

Wal-Mart Health Care
Lack of Health Care Coverage for Employees. More than 60% of Wal-Mart's employees - 600,000 people - are not covered by the company’s health plan. Fewer than half – between 41 and 46% – of Wal-Mart’s employees are insured by the company’s health care plan, compared nationally to 66% of employees at large firms like Wal-Mart who receive health benefits from their employer (AFL-CIO, Wal-Mart: An Example of Why Workers Remain Uninsured and Underinsured, at 1 (October 2003).

* Employees must pay $218 per month for family health care coverage from Wal-Mart.
* In Wal-Mart's employee health plan, deductibles range from $350 to as high as $3,000 for family coverage.
* Employee premiums increased in 2002 by 30% for all of the Wal-Mart employee health plan options.
* Wal-Mart further restricted the number of associates eligible for coverage by requiring fulltime associates to work 6 months before becoming eligible to purchase Wal-Mart health insurance. The company also raised the number of hours new employees must work from 28 to 34 hours per week to be eligible to purchase the expensive health care coverage.

Below Industry Standards. Wal-Mart’s spending on health care for its employees falls well below industry and national employer-spending averages. A Harvard Business School case study on Wal-Mart found that, in 2002, Wal-Mart spent an average of $3,500 per employee. By comparison, the average spending per employee in the wholesale/retailing sector was $4,800. For U.S. employers in general, the average was $5,600 per employee (Panjak Ghemawat, Ken Mark, and Stephen Bradley, “Wal-Mart Stores in 2003,” case study, Harvard Business School, 1/30/04).

Far fewer Wal-Mart employees elect to take coverage than the national average. For all firms offering health-care coverage, on average, 67% of their employees are being covered by their health insurance plan (Kaiser/HRET Employee Health Benefits Survey 2002). In contrast, based on the Company figures, only about 47% of Wal-Mart’s employees are covered by the Company’s health care plan-- which is nearly a third less than the national average (“Basic Health being abused, some say,” AP, 3/28/03).

According to a Company spokesperson, Wal-Mart makes the health care coverage available to around three out of four employees, which is near the national average (“Basic Health being abused, some say,” AP, 3/28/03, Kaiser/HRET Employee Health Benefits Survey 2002).

However, compared to the national average, far fewer eligible Wal-Mart employees elect to pay for the overly expensive and inadequate health care coverage. On average, for firms that offer health care coverage, 84% of eligible employees elect to take coverage (Kaiser/HRET Employee Health Benefits Survey 2002). In Wal-Mart, according to a Company spokesperson, only 62% of employees elect to take coverage— which is a quarter less than the national average (“Basic Health being abused, some say,” AP, 3/28/03).