Why not increase it to $25 and give a real boost!
Then the price of bread, milk etc would go up.
Yup, sure would. At the "living wage" level, about 46 cents per shopping trip, approximately $12.49 per year for the average consumer.
Living Wage Policies and Big-Box Retail
IMPACT ON CONSUMERS
Even if Walmart were to pass 100 percent of the wage increase on to consumers, the average impact
on a Walmart shopper would be quite small: 1.1 percent of prices, well below Walmart's estimated
savings to consumers. This works out to $0.46 per shopping trip, or $12.49 per year, for the average
consumer who spends approximately $1,187 per year at Walmart. This is the most extreme estimate,
as portions of the raise could be absorbed through other mechanisms, including increased produc-
tivity or lower profit margins.
While Walmart shoppers are disproportionately middle- and lower-income, the customers who
spend the most at the store are somewhat less likely to come from poor and low-income families. We
find that 28.1 percent of the total price increase would be borne by consumers in families below 200
percent FPL. In comparison, 41.4 percent of the benefits would go to Walmart workers in families
below 200 percent FPL.
In summary, we find that a Big Box Ordinance or similar legislation that raises wages would provide
significant, concentrated benefits to workers, almost half of them in poor or near-poor families, while
the costs would be dispersed in small amounts among many consumers across the income
spectrum. In net, a wage increase for Walmart workers represents a transfer of income to poor and
low-income families. Low-income Walmart workers would see a raise of $1,670 to $6,500 per year,
while the average Walmart shopper would spend an additional $12.49 per year. Both the benefits to
workers and the costs to consumers would be smaller in higher wage states and metropolitan areas.
Edited by diogenes227, 17 July 2013 - 09:18 AM.