Wal*Mart demands your tax subsidies

Wal*Mart continues to demand that tax payers subsidize their underpaid workers with food stamps, HEAP, health care, and dozens of other governmental programs because Wal*Mart WILL NOT pay a living wage.

From Think Progress...
(Click on the link to read more)

Walmart Threatens To Shut Down Stores If DC Passes Living Wage Bill

By Aviva Shen on Jul 10, 2013 at 11:30 am

(Credit: AP)
Walmart fought hard to persuade DC residents to let it open stores in the district. But now the retail giant is threatening to walk away from three planned sites if the DC City Council passes a "living wage" bill that would require all major employers to pay workers a minimum of $12.50 an hour.

Walmart claims that the bill, which applies to retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and stores that are 75,000 square feet or larger, is "arbitrary and discriminatory." In a Washington Post editorial, general manager Alex Barron issued an ultimatum to Mayor Vincent Gray: veto the bill, or Walmart will halt construction on stores at Skyland, Capitol Gateway, and New York Avenue.

[...]

Other large stores like Costco, Home Depot, Target, and Macy's would also have to abide by the DC proposal. But the new $12.50 minimum would be an especially dramatic change for Walmart, which currently pays workers 28 percent less on average than other large retailers, even as it reaps profits of nearly $450 billion a year. In contrast, Costco will have no problem meeting DC's requirement if it passes - the average Costco worker currently makes $21.96 an hour.