*Updated--You pay the difference, ALWAYS

*What I am trying to let you see with this post is that WalMart, instead of paying a decent wage, is relying on all of us to make up the difference. I am not harping on the poor. I think If they paid decent wages in the first place, this post would be pointless. I believe that WalMart preys on the less fortunate. WalMart employs them, sure, but the pay is shit. The part-time hours worked by most of them don't qualify for WalMart's insurance coverage, who is, by the way, IT'S OWN INSURER. WalMart ensures itself a legion of shoppers who cannot afford to shop anywhere else. The roughly 2.5 billion dollars in aid that WalMart workers are eligible for would be moot if WalMart merely paid its workers a living wage.

See here how YOU pay for low prices.
WalMart loves their employees so much, they even show them how to fill out the paperwork!

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*ONE STORE. Just ONE.


One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year. This cost comes from the following, on average:

$36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
$42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
$125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
$100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
$108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
$9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance. (from The Hidden Price We All Pay For WalMart/ A Report by the Democratic Staff from Committee on Education and the Workforce 2/04)

The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. (from Harper's Magazine 3/05)

*WalMart has over 5,000 stores