Much has been made about Walmart’s recent decision to raise its part-time workers’ hourly wage to $10 an hour, beginning April 1st and continuing into 2016. To some it’s as though Ebenezer Scrooge paused halfway through A Christmas Carol and said, “Okay, Cratchit, whatever you want.”
Has Walmart gone soft? Is it caving to public pressure? Is it secretly in league with the feds to put one over on the public at large? (This one’s as likely as any other.)
I’m not sure the exact reason for Walmart’s rationale, but I’m guessing it has more to do with business than with good will, good feelings, or good public relations. Ten-dollar-an-hour employees are better than seven-dollar-an-hour employees, and perhaps this will make for lesser turnover. (And I’m not discounting better PR.)
Point is, this is strictly business.
And what do our friends on the left say? Do they say, “Thanks, Walmart”?
Nope.
It’s not enough.
Have you noticed that it’s never enough with these people? Make the minimum wage $20 an hour and they want $25. Make it 100 and they’d want it to be 110. They have an ingrained sense that business is somehow out to get them, and that only by wise and benevolent government can we combat this evil.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have bad news. I have seen the enemy, and he’s the wise and benevolent.