Big Dogs Weblog

More Wal Mart

by Big Dog on Jan 23, 2006 at 18:17 Uncategorized

The recent edition of The Federalist Patriot had an item attributed to George Will about the Wal Mart bill that was recently overridden by the Democratic majority in Maryland. This bill will make Wal Mart (really businesses with > 10k employees, which Wal Mart is the only one) pay at least 8% of payroll in health benefits. This is what Will had to say about it:

“Wal-Mart’s enemies say Maryland is justified in expropriating some of the company’s revenues [for health care] because the company’s pay and medical benefits are insufficient to prevent some employees from being eligible for Medicaid. Well. Eighty-six percent of Wal-Mart employees have health insurance, more than half through the company, which offers 18 plans, one with $11 monthly premiums and another with $3 co-payments. Wal-Mart employees are only slightly more likely to collect Medicaid than the average among the nation’s large retailers, who hire many entry-level and part-time workers. In the last 12 months, Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the nation and in 25 states, estimates it has paid its 1.3 million employees $4.7 billion in benefits. That sum is almost half as large as the company’s profits, which last fiscal year were $10.3 billion—just 3.6 percent—on revenues of $285 billion. Wal-Mart earns just $6,000 per employee, one-third below the national average. Anyway, Wal-Mart’s pay and benefits are sufficient to attract hordes of job applicants whenever it opens a new American store, which it does once every three days.” —George Will

Perhaps the fact they are not union allows them to operate at lower costs. $4.7 billion in health care benefits is more money than some companies made last year. Just one more step toward socialism.

Tags: News