GOING "ON THE COUNTY" WHILE WORKING FULL TIME WITH HEALTH BENEFITS
This piece appearing today in the NYT mirrors what I know about WalMart's salary/wage/benefits policy. The two guys I know who used to work there told me they thought all companies were like that:
Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit CostsGo there and read the rest. The figures for LA County, which come from an unreliable source---CAL Berkeley---have not been challenged: 75% of WalMart employees who get sick "go on the county." In other words, I am paying WalMart's health coverage here in SoCal just as you are probably paying them where you live. The entire text of the internal memo is here, the NYT piece itself is dam good, and balanced too.
An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.
Skip to next paragraph---Related Text of Internal Wal-Mart Memo
In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.
To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."
The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.
5 comments:
"I'm paying Wal-Marts health coverage here in CoCal just as you are...."
It is indeed a country 2/3 of the way toward socialism/communism when the company who is good enough to hire you, is considered responsible for your health care by default.
Why should your boss be any more responsible for your health care than the "county dole".
The leftist mentality from which you analyze this is pure union, us versus them, junk.
How about people being responsible for their own selves. The wages you get would be much higher and you would get to decide what type of health care you get.
Those who would genuinely have need through no fault of there own, could be safety netted.
OK, but WalMart offers these benefits as a part of their employment contracts and nobody is forcing them to do that. So WalMart operates on a fraudulent premise, one that promises health care benefits to workers and their families, but because the benefits are so thin and the costs so high, employees cannot afford the "coverage" and go "on the county."
I must agree, the day that companies pay for health care is over, or should be. Let health care be paid thru taxes for those who can't afford it...of course, this causes prices to cycle upward, so healthcare will have to be government paid for all. That's just the way society is headed. The problem in this country is denial...let business do what it does best, employ, make a profit, and then we all pay what's neccessary for health care. Get rid of the damn insurance people.
If you can figure out a better way, I'd like to see it. But all the private solutions I've seen always leave out the bottom 30%.
xiaoding
he problem in this country is denial...let business do what it does best, employ, make a profit, and then we all pay what's neccessary for health care.
That is so fucking naive. You are the one in denial.
What about people who just don't have enough money to pay for health insurance?
How are GM, Ford, etc. ever going to compete with Hyundai and Kia without lowering wages and benefits to South Korean levels? Is that OK with you?
-- david.davenport.1@netzero.com
no one has to work for wal-mart. not happy with their benefits, get a job elswhere. not qualified to get a job elswhere?, thats the employee's problem, not the taxpayer's problems. where in the constitution does it state that healthcare is the taxpayer's obligation?
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