Hacker News Reader

> the minimum wage ... which Walmart has routinely supported.

Do you have any links for further reading on this? From what I've read, they've only raised their min wage from $9 to $10 after protests by their work force. I certainly wouldn't call this support of raising the minimum wage (but perhaps they've since changed their tune?).

View on HN

The federal minimum wage is only $7.25. By paying $10, they are paying 38% more than the minimum. Even at 9 they are 24% above the minimum. I expect that they would prefer a minimum wage exactly equal to what they pay as a minimum, because that would disadvantage less efficient competitors.

> I expect that they would prefer a minimum wage exactly equal to what they pay as a minimum, because that would disadvantage less efficient competitors.

No, it would disadvantage competitors that could get by with labor with lower market value per unit of labor, which are not necessarily less efficient (if they were delivering the same output per unit of labor using less expensive labor, they'd be more efficient, for example, not less.)

I would be more interested to see how each $.50 in hourly wage raises translates to improved efficiency, employee churn, and reduction in employee theft.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com