Just before Labor Day, Wal-Mart taught a lesson in Economics 101. The consequences of Wal-Mart’s decision to raise employee wages are becoming apparent and even the wage-hike promoting liberal news media has had to report it.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Wal-Mart’s labor costs had soared by $1 billion after raising hourly wages to $9 in April and committing to additional training. In order to deal with those soaring costs, the company has had to cut employees’ hours.
On Monday’s Morning Joe, an all-liberal panel discussed, with co-host Joe Scarborough, the recent feud between the D.C. Council and Walmart, highlighting the standoff between the discount retail giant and city councilors over wages at three future Walmart locations in the nation’s capital.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski bashed Walmart throughout the segment, responding with a long pause and a befuddled look when Scarborough and liberal panelist Brian Shactman defended the world’s largest retailer. Brzezinski petulantly asked Shactman how Walmart’s “doing,” as though the answer alone would morally justify a policy that specifically targeted Walmart because it is a profitable, and politically incorrect, corporation:
Slanted lefty “journalism” at HuffPo? Say it ain’t so!
Walmart complained about an article written by the Huffington Post, according to the online news outlet Politico. Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove told Politico that the story, entitled “Walmart’s New Health Care Policy Shifts Burden To Medicaid, Obamacare,” was “riddled with inaccuracies.” Hardly shocking, given that it was a hit piece offering writer Alice Hines a chance to quote left-wing academics critical of the company.
Hines wrote that a new change in Walmart’s policy would end healthcare coverage for many of its workers, and possibly leave workers in states like Texas, which has threatened not to implement the Obamacare expansions to Medicaid, without health care coverage altogether.