While returning from the big scrap yard by the Rogers airport where I disposed of my old dishwasher, I was pondering the $1.90 in payment I received for the scrap. That was what I was paid per hour working in the Gulf of Mexico on a construction barge in 1969 -- a tad more than minimum wage back then.
Correction
Rob Walton is a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors. He was chairman of the board from 1992 to 2015. Also, $149 billion divided by 1.5 million equals $99,333. This column originally contained errors that have changed to the correct information. It also includes the correct spelling for Lynne Walton and Applebee's.
Ironically, as I mulled this personal factoid, I pulled up at a Hudson Road traffic light next to a passenger van with a banner on the side stating "Walton family members are worth $149 billion." As best I could determine the remaining message was "Walmart can afford to pay employees $15.00 per hour."
Since the occupants of the van were clad in highlighter green T-shirts, I presumed they were part of the Making Change at Walmart group and the related Forrespect.org as that is their signature color . The organization is in town for the 2016 Walmart Shareholders meeting, I learned later from new sources.
Having been a minimum-wage worker earlier in my life, I sympathize to an extent with grievances being aired about pay at Walmart and other such companies. However, there is a "be careful what you ask for" element to this: Reduced hours, eliminated jobs and automation could be the result of a $15 rate. Labor reduction is already here with self-check registers at mass retailers and "pay tablets" brought to your table at Applebee's. Most people who know me would report that I'm a people person, but often I like to check out myself at Walmart. It's simply faster.
My problem about a wage hike at Walmart specifically is when the rhetoric gets personal. This is the case when Walton family members are the presumed problem or the solution behind payroll decisions and their worth is plastered on a rented passenger van trolling around Northwest Arkansas. It's mixing apples and oranges. It just doesn't work that way. And to put out information that suggests it should or can work that way is just plain misleading. It makes those uninformed as to how large companies operate even more misguided. Having Walton family members, other than say board member Rob Walton, engage in specific operations actions in Bentonville is like expecting Teresa Heinz Kerry to determine the tomato count in a bottle of ketchup in Pittsburgh.
But for the sake of argument, let's take a look at that outrageous number $149 billion. So what shall we do with it? Shall we, if it were even possible without causing catastrophe in the equity markets, force the Waltons to liquidate their worth? Then what's to be done with the dough?
Presuming that the making Walmart better folks, backed by a U.S. union, are only interested in domestic employees, then we'll take only the U.S count of Walmart employees, that being 1.5 million.
Divide $149 billion by a mere 1.5 million and you get a hefty sum per employee: $99,333. Let's share the wealth, then, and each employee could get a "lottery payout." Bam! Then back to usual with pay hovering around $10 an hour? And the Waltons would have paid their penance for simply breathing and their wealth would be Robin-Hooded across the fruited plain. Would that satisfy figurative throngs storming the gates on SW 8th Street? Perhaps a homeless Alice Walton could find refuge in the attic bedrooms of the Frank Lloyd Wright house on the Crystal Bridges Museum grounds and always kind and soft-spoken in-law Lynne Walton could help her and husband Jim Walton make ends meet by opening a bookstore as she once had off the Bentonville square, providing she could afford current rents there these days in that hipster enclave!
If Walmart or any other U.S. retailer or fast-food distributor should be paying a higher wage, then so be it. Pro-worker organizations should attack the issue with facts and communication and relentless public awareness campaigns. And they should continue to get retailers to the table for substantive conversations on employee well-being. And the retailers should respond. And shoppers should let retailers know if they would be willing to pay a few pennies more per trip, or not, to cover the higher wages.
But for organizations such as Making Change at Walmart to use personal stabs at billionaires is, in my book, the same as those who post internet photos of downtrodden, tackily dressed Walmart shoppers for us to gleefully deride. It just ain't fittin' on either end of the income scale.
Commentary on 06/03/2016