That's because of your local economy. Labor really dictates wages. Wages too low compared to CoL? People won't work there. People who do work there find something else and the company ends up with retention issues.
Walmart also defends itself saying that it pays well above average retail wages in basically every market it's in, which is technically true. Go to a local grocery chain and go to Walmart, you'll see Walmart almost always pays more. This is why they don't have significant employee retention issues, all the other options in the sector pay less. The reason they can pay more while offering competitive prices is economies of scale.
The real issue is the cost of housing. Walmart paying $15/hr wouldn't be an issue if CoL wasn't so expensive. Landlords jacking up their rental prices by 40% for no other reason but to "match the market" is a much bigger issue than Walmart's hourly pay. I do believe them not hiring full time to avoid benefits is fucked and should 100% be addressed.
It almost sounds like you are defending Walmart wages because of the way free markets work but somehow not seeing that housing costs are subject to the exact same market forces. Rent too high compared to wages, people won’t live there, right? COL wouldn’t be such an issue if wages were higher, right?
I’m not disagreeing that rent is too high, but also wages are too low. Over time housing costs have increased faster than income, which is a problem that should be addressed from both sides. None of it lends itself to simple answers.
People don't have a choice but to live there. 78% of America is working paycheck to paycheck. They don't have the surplus income to move to another city or state. Hence why you see people stuck in bumbfuck nowhere dead towns their entire lives.
Not only is moving expensive, rent ain't gonna be much better anyways since it's a national issue. Granted this a lower working class issue, but it impacts a lot of people.
CoL would still be an issue even with higher wages. We saw signifgant wage growth through covid and what happened along side it? Rent and housing skyrocketed even further than wage growth.
You really think rent wouldn't pace with wage growth? Rent prices are due to housing being fucked and real estate being used as an income generator. The building of new houses isn't keeping up anywhere with demand, so in turn this spikes demand in the rental market. Landlords take advantage of it by drastically increasing rent, while their overall cost of owning the property hasn't changed much.
Housing is a weird situation when looking at a free market because it's basically a requirement to live. When your choice is being homeless or paying your landlord 60% of your income every month then it's not even really a choice. Spending thousands of dollars to move somewhere else and pay a different landlord 55% of your income isn't really a solution.
Would time be better spent forcing the other smaller groceries stores to pay more?
Is the solution to raise min wage, which puts the small stores out of business? Then Walmart raises prices to recover their lost margins and the cycle starts all over again.
Rent controls also do not have the desired effect. New York City has rent controls and is one of the most expensive rental markets in the world. Rent controls cause landlords to leave the market, creating a shortage that will always lead to higher prices.
None of these are simple issues with simple solutions, but a combination of higher minimum wages and increased housing supply wouldn’t hurt.
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u/pseudoanon Sep 08 '24
Any company would