Walmart’s Food Stamp Scam Explained in One Easy Chart

[MrScorpio]

Walmart, the nation’s most profitable corporation, may also be the greatest beneficiary of the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps.

But how has Walmart managed to make so much money off of taxpayers? For the short answer, take a look at the chart below where we’ve illustrated the scam. For the long answer, keep reading.

Step One: Pay your employees so little that they are forced to rely on food stamps to survive.

Even at Walmart’s definition of a full-time job, an employee earning the company’s average wage of $8.81/hour makes just $15,500 per year, placing them well below the federal poverty line for a family of four. With such low wages, even when working full-time hours, many associates are forced to depend on taxpayer-funded assistance such as food stamps and Medicaid to survive. In other words, Walmart is shifting responsibility onto the public for ensuring their associates’ basic needs are met. One study showed that a single Walmart can cost taxpayers anywhere from $904,542 to nearly $1.75 million per year, or about $5,815 per employee for these programs all because one of the world’s most profitable retailers is paying substandard wages and benefits. A more recent report by Americans for Tax Fairness revealed that Walmart’s reliance on programs like food stamps cost federal taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion a year.

The rest: http://www.jwj.org/walmarts-food-stamp-scam-explained-in-one-easy-chart

[FSogol]

1. K & R. n/t

[daleanime]

2. K&R.....

[Faux pas]

3. K N R-ed

[mindwalker_i]

4. So why do people work for Walmart?

It seems like a bit part of the answer is that Walmart comes into an area, runs at a loss for a while to put other businesses out of business, then all the unskilled work is forced to go to Walmart since it's, by then, the only option. There would have to be people initially to work at Walmart to get it going.

[leftstreet]

6. Because they need jobs?

[former9thward]

8. Do you think Walmart is the only company that pays low wages

for unskilled entry labor? They aren't. Most companies, big and small, pay the same.

[mindwalker_i]

9. The OP implied that Walmart pays lower wages than other places

I think that's true, but lack any real information on it. If so, it would mean that, predominantly, Walmart employees need food stamps - less than at other businesses - and that wouldreinforce the OP. If a lot of businesses are paying the same amounts, then people from all over need food stamps because of low wages. That should move the focus away from Walmart specifically and to the community as a whole. It seems to me that we also need to look at that.

So perhaps Walmart is driving the entire labor market down. It's important to know the whole story in order to address the right problem.

[former9thward]

10. Yes.

The Walmart nearest to me pays entry level $10.00 and everyone works 40 hours. So I don't where the average wage is $8.81 is coming from. The also offer benefits that small businesses do not. They have medical, life insurance and a 401k plan. The reason I know this is because I have been curious whether any of the information that is constantly posted about Walmart is true. So I have asked employees about it.

[mindwalker_i]

11. I think there is missing information

It seems like Walmart isn't the only problem, although they may be a big part of it, or be causing other secondary problems.

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[ileus]

7. Unskilled labor pays crappy no matter what.

Everyone in a union is the answer.