Read the entire story at:   
      
    http://www.toledoblade.com/Retail/2013/07/22/   
    Taxpayers-subsidizing-low-paid-employees.html   
      
      
    The battle over food stamps is clearly a smoke screen for the   
    Republicans just trying to extort more from the administration.   
    Without food stamps many employees of this country's largest   
    employer will go hungry.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Printed Thursday, July 25, 2013   
      
     Taxpayers subsidizing low-paid employees   
      
       Report: 50 firms benefit from public assistance   
      
    *BY CORNELIUS FROLIK AND JOSH SWEIGART DAYTON DAILY NEWS *   
      
    ...   
    Employees at some of Ohio's largest companies increasingly   
    rely on public assistance such as food stamps and Medicaid,   
    ...   
      
    These companies include Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Bob Evans, whose   
    ...   
    The number of people on food stamps with someone in their   
    household working at one of these 50 firms grew 47 percent   
    between February, 2008, and February, 2013, to 117,890 people,   
    the newspaper found.   
      
    During the same time, Medicaid recipients associated with these   
    employers grew by 59 percent to 141,182 people.   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    Most people know who Wal-Mart is, probably Kroger, but may not   
    know what Bob Evans is. Bob Evans is an "iconic" Ohio restaurant   
    chain. Long ago it was one of the top, but it has declined   
    drastically over the years. The founder, Bob Evans, was asked to   
    do advertising for the company years after he had retired. He   
    refused to do so unless he was given the authority to bring the   
    quality back up to his standards.   
      
    Krogers used to pay wages good enough to keep employees who   
    could otherwise have gotten high paying factory jobs. I once   
    talked to an employee there I knew, and told him they were   
    hiring where I worked. He was a stock worker, and my employer   
    paid on a level exceeded only by the auto industry in this area.   
      
    He declined to even apply, as he was making wages and benefits   
    that made it not worth his while to change. That is no longer   
    true, as Walmart has pulled down wages throughout the business   
    area.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    ...   
    The cost of Medicaid in Ohio grew $4 billion since fiscal year   
    2008 to $17.5 billion last year. The cost of food stamps grew   
    from $1.4 billion in 2008 to $3 billion last year.   
   ...   
    But some policy groups contend these firms' wages are   
    determined by the market and say many Ohioans work for these   
    corporations because they offer fair and attractive pay and   
    benefits.   
    ...   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    Walmart says their average pay is $12.89/hr, and half their   
    employees work 34 hours a week or more, making them full time.   
      
    $12.89/hr is less than $26K/yr for a 40 hour week. Think that   
    through, that's poverty level wages. And don't even try the   
    'entry level for teen agers' line, cause they don't hire that   
    many teenagers for those jobs.   
      
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    "[Employers] are not going to pay workers more than the value   
    they provide," said Michael Tanner, senior fellow with the   
    Cato Institute, which promotes limited government and free   
    ...   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    Employers are not going to pay workers any more than they have   
    to, no matter how much value they provide.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    About 25 percent of food-stamp recipients in Ohio live in a   
    household where at least one family member works, but many   
    recipients are children or disabled or retired residents.   
    ...   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    IOW, the 47% are not bums living a life of leisure, but retired   
    folks and Wallmart workers and such.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Walmart in February had 14,684 employees or their household   
    members on food stamps and 14,056 on Medicaid.   
    ...   
    recipient, which suggests Ohio spent an estimated $1.9 million   
    in February alone feeding families of Walmart workers.   
    ...   
    Since 2009, Walmart has reduced its Ohio work force 10 percent   
    to 48,630 employees.   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    Again, think that through. The state of Ohio subsidizes Wallmart   
    to the tune of nearly $2 million a month.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Kroger's work force has grown nearly 7 percent to 39,000   
    since 2008. But the pool of company employees and those they   
    live with receiving food stamps has grown 75 percent while the   
    pool of Medicaid recipients increased 82 percent.   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    As I said, years ago Kroger provided wages and benefits   
    sufficient they could compete with industry. Thanks to Wallmart   
    they have been pulled down to a government subsidized workforce.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Bob Evans has shed thousands of Ohio jobs since 2008, leaving   
    it with a work force of 12,500. But the number of its employees   
    and household members on food stamps has grown nearly 29 percent   
    to 4,066, and Medicaid participation has risen 40 percent.   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    An "iconic" Ohio business, not a welfare business. Think that   
    one through.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Food stamp payments to households with at least one member   
    employed by Walmart, McDonald's, Kroger, Wendy's, and Bob   
    Evans has grown to an estimated $6 million a month.   
    ...   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    Five companies in Ohio, one gets nearly $2 mill/month subsidy,   
    the other four divide up about $4mill a month from the state.   
      
    Yet republicans in the house cut food stamps completely out of   
    the budget.   
      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
    Walmart officials said they try to keep their wages and benefits   
    competitive.   
    ----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
    When ever an employer calls his wages competitive, he doesn't   
    mean high enough to attract good workers, but low enough to keep   
    his costs down to where he can put good paying companies out of   
    business.   
      
    The reality of this world is, in a prosperous and truly   
    competitive market Wallmart would be out of business, or forced   
    to compete for workers with wages high enough they don't need   
    govt support.   
      
    Wallmart could even be reasonably called a socialist enterprise,   
    as it depends on govt subsidies to survive. It requires the   
    government to feed it's employees.   
      
    Yet Wallmart gives it's support to republicans who denounce all   
    that they are... but hell, it sure pays well for the top brass.   
      
      
      
   BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn   
      
   ... Don't tell me you are pro-life if you don't support health care for all.   
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