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Wednesday, May 4th, 2005

Obscenity is in the Eye of the Beholder

Tbogg has a post about the salary ranges at Wal-Mart. He introduces us to Jason, a high school graduate who earns under $19,000 a year ($8.50 an hour). And then he estimates the hourly the salary of H Lee Scott, Jr., the CEO of Wal-Mart:

It looks like Mr. Scott Jr. makes more on Monday (in salary and bonus combined) than Jason does all year. And that’s chump change compared to his stock grants.

But that $2600 per hour must be pretty sweet.

$2600. An. Hour.
$20,800 a day.

In one day, this man earns more than 40% of his employees will in a year.
In one day, he earns more than a starting prison guard will in a year.
In one day, he earns more than a soldier fighting in Iraq will in a year.
In one day.

In one week, he earns enough to fund the annual salaries of
4 sanitation workers
3 police officers
3 full-time school teachers
2 public defenders
2 ER doctors
or
1 Supreme Court justice*

And that doesn’t take into account his stock options. Depending on the day, his stock options amount to around $8,000. An. Hour.

$8,000.
An.
Hour.

Shit.

Meanwhile, the bulk of this man’s full-time employees hover near the poverty line, struggling by with barely any health insurance and no retirement or education benefits, earning somewhere around %0.09 of what their boss does. Yes, there is a “0″ in front of that 9. Less than one tenth of one percent.

And the justification for this difference in salary is…what, again? I mean, I’m all for rewarding productive, innovative, and creative people, but…shit. This level of discrepancy slides over into French Revolution territory, here. Czarist Russia setting up for the Marxist movement. Nottingham, England, just waiting for Robin Hood.

Shit.

*In case you’re wondering why I cited “public servant” salaries, it’s state and local governments give Wal-Mart all kinds of tax breaks and subsidies. Wal-Mart is a strong competitor and a profitable company. They have the clout to get huge discounts from their suppliers. Why do our elected officials almost across the board insist on giving them subsidies? And why, oh why does our society place the highest value on jobs that aren’t vital to the public interest? Try living three weeks without shopping at Wal-Mart. Then try living three weeks without getting your trash collected. (I should stop now before I start picking on pro-sports stars and actors….)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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