Walmart Giving All Employees a Raise to $10/Hour

[memphis]

Classic Fordism rediscovered 100 years later. In labor markets, you get what you pay for. Crazy to think that Wally World could be a vaguely desirable job à la Starbucks, but it sounds like that's the way we're headed.

[memphis]

I'm always amused to see the right insist they prefer Welfare over Working as the cure for poverty.

[memphis]

I like the self checkout machines. The lines are usually shorter and I'm spared the awkward small talk. It doesn't work well with a whole cart full of groceries though.

[memphis]

Ew, why are you engaging in small talk with the cashier? Or anyone ever, for that matter? Don't talk to people.

Yeah, next time the cashier asks me how I'm doing, or remarks about the weather or whatever, I'll just ignore her and stare at my shoes. That won't be awkward at all.

[memphis]

Work is not hard to find right now.

If work was hard for people to find, this thread wouldn't exist because Walmart wouldn't have raised wages to $10 per hour.

Even Bushie just found a $10 per hour job, I mean come on

This is all true, but work, at a living wage, remains very hard to find for those without very specific professional skills and licenses. It's one thing to be employed. It's something very different to be able to pay the rent and have enough money left over to pay all the rest of the bills.

[memphis]

High rates of turnover do not imply that work - even the worst sort of work - is easy to find.

To the contrary, high turnover does imply that work is easy to find. When lots of people leave their jobs, employers need to find somebody else to cover those shifts. Fast food and retailers have enormous turnover and, so, are just about always hiring lots of people. That constant churn makes these jobs very easy to get.

[memphis]

Update: Target has announced it will raise its minimum wage to $9 per hour effective this April.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102508233

Nice to hear. More than any other retailer, around, Target had to do this. Target's entire business model is based around being the same sort of all around discount retailer WalMart is, but with somewhat better products and service. None of that works if they're stuck employing the people that WalMart doesn't want.