Walmart Holding Canned Food Drive for Its Own Underpaid Employees

By Scott Keyes, ThinkProgress

19 November 13

Walmart in northeast Ohio is holding a holiday canned food drive - for its own underpaid employees. "Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner," a sign reads in the employee lounge of a Canton-area Walmart.

Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, says the drive is a positive thing. "This is part of the company's culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships," he said. Indeed, Lundberg is correct that it's commendable to make an effort to help out those who are in need, especially during the holidays.

But the need for a food drive illustrates how difficult it is for Walmart workers to get by on its notoriously low pay. The company has long been plagued by charges that it doesn't pay its employees a real living wage. In fact, Walmart's President and CEO, Bill Simon, recently estimated that the majority of its one million associates make less than $25,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line of $23,550 for a family of four. When the Washington DC city council passed a living wage bill requiring Walmart to pay workers a minimum of $12.50 per hour, the chain threatened to shut down its new stores if Mayor Vincent Gray didn't veto the bill. Gray vetoed the bill.

Walmart's low wages come at a public cost. Because low-income workers still need housing and health care, taxpayers end up doling out millions in benefits to bridge the gap faced by many of the store's retail workers. They have also led to strikes at Walmart stores from Seattle to Chicago to Los Angeles in recent weeks.

Even if the canned food drive successfully gathers enough to help out the Canton store's low-income workers, many of them might not even be able to have the food on Thanksgiving. That's because Walmart is one of a group of retailers that will open its stores for Black Friday sales beginning at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving afternoon.