We have all heard some employers and right-wingers say that wages are determined by the labor market, some kind of human supply and demand.
Yet recently, we reported that Walmart announced two upcoming wage increases for half a million workers without any substantial change in the labor market. The wage increases will affect some Walmart workers slightly and many greatly. Because Walmart is the largest employer in the world, the wage increase will affect many people who don’t even work at Walmart.
The estimable Paul Krugman–Nobel laureate, Princeton professor and New York Times columnist says that, “Walmart’s move tells us — namely, that low wages are a political choice, and we can and should choose differently.”
Krugman, in his NYT column goes on to write what we all know. He says that a vibrant labor movement, an expanding economy, and pro-worker policies created the American middle class and, thus, the American Dream.
Partly, the Walmart wage increases are the result of worker, union, community, and faith pressure on Walmart as a creator and driver of poverty here and around the world. The pressure was hurting Walmart’s brand. Their ads had to turn from low prices to their lie about being a good employer. They were on the defensive, and were the face of the increasingly familiar and hated wage and income disparity.
But at the end of the day Walmart proves Krugman and organized labor right. Low wages are a choice that all of us can influence or even determine.
Krugman finishes, “Raise minimum wages by a substantial amount; make it easier for workers to organize, increasing their bargaining power direct monetary and fiscal policy toward full employment.” And we will begin to close the gulf between those at the very top and the rest of us.