It Will Add Jobs? Yeah, Right
Local Businesses Suffer It is well documented that a Walmart tends to drive out the existing local retailers. There is only so much shopping a city can do. It's a certainty that some of our locally owned stores will begin to close. Pick & Save or Walgreens at our new Grant Park Plaza will lose significant business. Ace Hardware at Sunrise plaza will see declining sales. The neighboring K-Mart and Piggly Wiggly may be just off our border but many of their employees live here. We've been told that one store manager already prepared his staff of layoffs when he heard about the Walmart.
Jobs Won't Be Added, Just Shifted A given market area can only support so many retail stores. Therefore, the jobs Walmart claims to add to our community will ultimately just be shifted from other nearby retailers. Their top hourly wages can't really support a family anyway. A Government study* estimated that for every two jobs Walmart adds, three are lost in the community (*source: Institute for the Study of Labor Discussion Paper 2545)
$12/hr Average?? What A Distortion We've talked to Walmart employees about this. They have co-workers earning minimum wage and managers barely pulling $12/hr. We think Walmart used the median average of the pay scale NOT what the true average wage is of all employees. The average is probably below $9/hr according to a national research firm.
Walmarts Can Depress Surrounding Wages "The overwhelming weight of independent research...shows that Walmart depresses area wages and labor benefits" (Hunter College Center for Community Planning, NY) other reports
South Milwaukeeans Won't Want Those Cheap "Jobs" Anyway Have the aldermen considered this possibility? Every one of those 120 jobs could very well be filled by workers from Milwaukee arriving by bus. Our $1.8 million TIF could wind up as a jobs subsidy program to benefit workers from 10 miles away. Now that sure benefits our community !
What We Really Need Are Industrial Jobs Or Service Businesses Yet the site Walmart wants is one of the last industrial sites we have left. Don't pay Walmart to take it off our hands. We'll find an industrial buyer who will pay properly for it. Then watch some real economic development take place.
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Jobs Won't Be Added, Just Shifted A given market area can only support so many retail stores. Therefore, the jobs Walmart claims to add to our community will ultimately just be shifted from other nearby retailers. Their top hourly wages can't really support a family anyway. A Government study* estimated that for every two jobs Walmart adds, three are lost in the community (*source: Institute for the Study of Labor Discussion Paper 2545)
$12/hr Average?? What A Distortion We've talked to Walmart employees about this. They have co-workers earning minimum wage and managers barely pulling $12/hr. We think Walmart used the median average of the pay scale NOT what the true average wage is of all employees. The average is probably below $9/hr according to a national research firm.
Walmarts Can Depress Surrounding Wages "The overwhelming weight of independent research...shows that Walmart depresses area wages and labor benefits" (Hunter College Center for Community Planning, NY) other reports
South Milwaukeeans Won't Want Those Cheap "Jobs" Anyway Have the aldermen considered this possibility? Every one of those 120 jobs could very well be filled by workers from Milwaukee arriving by bus. Our $1.8 million TIF could wind up as a jobs subsidy program to benefit workers from 10 miles away. Now that sure benefits our community !
What We Really Need Are Industrial Jobs Or Service Businesses Yet the site Walmart wants is one of the last industrial sites we have left. Don't pay Walmart to take it off our hands. We'll find an industrial buyer who will pay properly for it. Then watch some real economic development take place.
.