Yes, Walmart DOES Pay A Living Wage

All this talk of Wal-Mart not paying its employees a ‘living wage,’ caused me to do that oft-overlooked burdensome task of… a quick Google search. 

The average salary of a full-time worker at Wal-Mart (and full-time is the what we should use as an example, unless, of course, liberals now think one should be able to only work part-time?) is $12.83/hour or, roughly, $27,000 a year.

Assuming about 20% of that paycheck goes to Uncle Sam, that works out to a take-home pay of about $1,800/month.

Now, let’s be overly generous in our model and assume that the Wal-Mart worker in our example does not have any family with which he can live, and no wife/husband/live-in partner, thus having to foot the bill for rent and utilities himself.

Guess what? It’s still a livable wage. Here’s how:

RENT: $750 a month (rent out someone’s efficiency or small studio apartment, or rent a bedroom in an apartment or house — guess what? lots of folks have roommates to get by!)

UTILITIES: $75/month

CELL PHONE: $60/month

FOOD: budgeted properly, there’s no reason an individual cannot get by on $10 a day, which works out to $300/month

TRANSPORTATION: take the bus! cost? get a monthly pass, usually about $100/month

TOILETRIES: $40/month

HEALTH INSURANCE: Wal-Mart provides it. Let’s assume the employee contribution is $100/month

TOTAL… $1425, leaving almost $400 for miscellaneous/additional expenses. (And, again, this is assuming the worker has no one with whom to share rent and utilities.) 

It’s not a great living, by any means, but it IS enough to get by.

So, tell me again how Wal-Mart doesn’t pay a “living wage”…