Ethical Issues Facing Walmart

Walmart is nearly everywhere. It is reported that there over 5,000 stores nationwide (Walmart Corporate). And that means that there are a lot of employees — nearly 1.4 million of them to be exact (Walmart Corporate). They are often seen as being greedy in order to receive a big profit over their competitors. Unfortunately for employees, that could mean problems: Walmart is often under ridicule for their low salaries, less than great benefits, and their lack of career training, and bad treatment. These issues may leave Walmart’s employees struggling with lack of money and lack of training — this may be bad news for America’s taxpayers, too.
Little do many of America’s taxpayers know, a large sum of their tax money goes to helping make up the large gap left behind due to low wages. The average Walmart employee makes 20% less than other retail employees — this equals to be about $10,000 less than the living cost in America (“Stop the Bullying, Walmart”). That means employees may often have to receive government assistance in order to get by. The total amount of public assistance received by Walmart’s employees adds up: “Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance,

Sure Walmart has laid out plans to combat the low wages, but this in turn reduced hours of many workers. And Walmart seems to be ignoring the fact that their employees receive little to no benefits including healthcare. These problems add up to be roughly $6 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets (O’Connor, “Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance”). Walmart is a company that is based off of profit and providing customers with low prices, but fails to provide its employees with a living wage. Walmart must find the balance of employee benefits and