The Wal-Mart Way
For Immediate Release
Monday, May 16, 2005
Washington, D.C., May 15, 2005 – Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer demonstrates the momentum in statehouses nationwide to reform Wal-Mart’s business practices. Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced a bill to compel Wal-Mart to increase its health care spending for its employees, where it is estimated that Wal-Mart currently costs state taxpayers about $30 million a year. Wal-Mart Watch finds the story of great interest and excerpts it below. Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but think about health care costs vis-à-vis Alice Walton’s $35 million painting purchase last week. (Her purchase of the Durand set a record for the most ever paid for an American painting.)
WAL-MART & HEALTH CARE
- $3,500 Per Employee – The amount per employee that Wal-Mart spends on health care. [Ghemawat, Mark, and Bradley, “Wal-Mart Stores in 2003,” Harvard Business School, Case Study 9-704-430, 1/30/04]
- 10,000—The number of additional employees for whom Wal-Mart could provide health care for the cost of Alice Walton’s new $35 million painting. [Calculation based on New York Times, “New York Public Library’s Durand Painting Sold to Wal-Mart Heiress,” 5/13/05]
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: PA. TO WAL-MART: PAY UP FOR HEALTH CARE
Lawmakers introduce a bill to make the retailer cover the costs for more of its employees so the state won’t have to foot the bill.
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania, like most states, has rolled out the red carpet for Wal-Mart, offering up millions in tax incentives and grants over the last decade to reel in the retail giant. In return, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has delivered jobs - 40,000 of them - making it the largest private employer in the state. But critics say the jobs have come with a hidden cost: An unusually high percentage of Wal-Mart workers do not have company-paid health insurance, leaving them to rely on taxpayer-subsidized care. Nobody knows how much such workers cost Pennsylvania taxpayers, although several Democratic lawmakers claim it could be as much as $30 million a year. The lawmakers, joining a well-financed national campaign led by labor unions, have proposed legislation to get an exact answer. The bill would require Pennsylvania companies with 20 or more employees to issue annual reports stating how many of them are receiving Medical Assistance…."Wal-Mart is the most notorious abuser of Medical Assistance programs nationwide based on states that have done studies,” said Rep. Mike Veon (D., Beaver), a cosponsor of the bill. “We need to find a way to encourage or require employers to provide affordable health-care insurance.”
Click here to read the full article here.
