Originally Posted by kane

One of the main reasons is that many of these lower paying jobs don't come with health insurance. The same people that qualify for food stamps also likely qualify for medicaid or some other state health insurance, especially if they have a kid. Others will also quality for housing assistance and daycare assistance.

If Wal-Mart paid them enough to get above this poverty level these people would no longer qualify for these things and they would seek them elsewhere. The first place they would look would be their current employer Wal-Mart. Never mind the daycare or the housing assistance, If there was suddenly massive pressure on Wal-Mart to give these people health insurance it would raise their costs even more. They are big enough that they likely could do it and still make plenty of profit while only raising prices a tiny bit, but they have no interest in rocking the boat.