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Demand More from Walmart

For several years, Walmart has placed or tied for last among department and discount stores in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The situation for the workers is even less satisfying. Hundreds went on strike on Black Friday last fall. With the backing of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), thousands of Walmart employees have formed an association called OUR Walmart that works with community activists to pressure the company to make changes.

OUR Walmart has stressed the importance of flexible, consistent scheduling and adequate hours.
May 9, 2013 |
Boulder Weekly
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Jobs & Income 
We're All Responsible for Income Inequality

The vacuous, cheerful expression of the Walmart smiley face has long been associated with the paradoxically dark reality of low-wage work. With the recent fast-food worker walkouts in New York, the golden arches may go down, too, in the annals of class-war symbology.
May 8, 2013 |
Alternet
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Economy & Opportunity 
Jobs & Income 
Taxpayers Indirectly Employing More Low-Wage Workers Than Walmart And McDonald's Combined

Lucila Ramirez, 55, has been cleaning the bathrooms and tables at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station for 21 years. Despite her long record of service, Ramirez says she makes only $8.75 per hour, and receives no benefits or sick days.

“I work in a federal building doing work on behalf of the government and if I was paid a living wage, I wouldn’t have to go looking for a second job in order to support my family,” Ramirez, 55, told The Huffington Post in Spanish via an interpreter.
May 8, 2013 |
Huffington Post
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Jobs & Income 
Obama Pressed To Do More on Jobs, Stagnant Wages

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's slowly improving jobs picture hides problems like stagnant wages and fewer working hours that strike directly at President Barack Obama's base of support — young people, racial minorities and the less affluent.

"I've never asked for anything from the government," she said. But she joined a number of other workers Wednesday to call on Obama to issue an executive order mandating federal contractors to pay a higher wage.
May 8, 2013 |
The Associated Press
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Economy & Opportunity 
Obama Pressed to Do More On Jobs, Stagnant Wages

The average unemployment rate in the first quarter of this year was 7.7 percent. But for African-American workers that rate was 13.6 percent. For Latinos, it was 9.5 percent.

And among those who do have jobs, wages are not rising.
May 8, 2013 |
Associated Press
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Economy & Opportunity 
Jobs & Income 
Dow 15,000 and the Retirement Crisis Ahead

The entire social and fiscal debate ignores this monster of an issue, but it’s only a matter of time. The kids are moving back home when they graduate and can’t find work. Soon, grandma and grandpa are going to be moving in, too. There’s a reckoning ahead that policymakers and the news media haven’t begun to think clearly about — or focus the public on.
May 8, 2013 |
Washington Post
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Retirement Security 
Study: U.S. Taxpayers Employ More Low-Wage Workers Than Wal-Mart, McDonald’s Combined

Federal taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s combined, a new study calculates.
May 7, 2013 |
The Washington Post
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Economy & Opportunity 
Politico Morning Tax Quick Click

From The Washington Post, “Federal taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s combined, a new study calculates. The report from the consulting firm Demos, set to be released Wednesday, estimates that taxpayer dollars fund nearly 2 million private-sector jobs that pay $24,000 a year — about $12 an hour — or less.”
May 7, 2013 |
Politico
Chris Murphy: 'Soul-Crushing' Fundraising Is Bad For Congress

Murphy suggested two ways out of this trap. One is crowd-sourced fundraising, which is already occurring over the Internet. Murphy stated that his Senate campaign raised $4 million of its $10 million total from donors giving online. That meant he did not have to call wealthy donors to raise 40 percent of his campaign haul.
May 7, 2013 |
The Huffington Post
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Campaign Finance Reform 
America's Youth Unemployment Rate Is One Of The Worst Of Wealthy, Large Economies: Report

In the constant race to be the best America is falling behind other large, wealthy nations in at least one major category: Employing the nation’s youth.
May 6, 2013 |
The Huffington Post