Studies and Reports
What Do We Know About Wal-Mart? An Overview of Facts and Studies for New Yorkers
This report is intended to help New Yorkers make informed policy decisions about economic develop-
ment in their communities. As Wal-Mart continues to expand across the state and looks to enter New
York City, growing attention is being focused on the company's employment practices and local eco-
nomic impact. Given whatÕs at stake, good information is critical. But despite heightened interest in
Wal-Mart, there is currently a wealth of incomplete and conflicting data about the company.
Brennan Center for Justice, 2005
Wal-Mart Imports from China, Exports Ohio Jobs
"This report tells the stories of four Ohio companies
that sell to Wal-Mart. The loss of jobs at the Huffy
Corp., Rubbermaid, Mr. Coffee and Thomson facto-ries
in Ohio demonstrates how Wal-Mart pressures
suppliers to send Ohio jobs overseas. These jobs
exported by Wal-Mart suppliers represent just a
handful of the hundreds of thousands of good jobs
Ohio has lost in the new Wal-Mart economy. Other
such Wal-Mart suppliers as Hasbro, Ohio Art, Texas
Instruments Inc., Hoover, World Kitchen Inc. and
Philips also have closed plants in Ohio."
AFL-CIO, 2005
Wal-Mart’s Pay Gap
Wal-Mart company documents released today reveal that CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr., made $17,543,739
in total compensation last year – nearly twice the average of $9.6 million for leading U.S. CEOs as a whole,
according to Business Week. Thomas Coughlin, the Vice Chair of the board who recently was accused by Wal-Mart
officials of spending company money on personal items such as alligator skin cowboy boots, has had some of his
compensation suspended, but not his $1 million-plus salary.
Institute for Policy Studies, 2005
Wal-Mart Watch Annual Report
The broader issue, of course, is the hidden costs Wal-Mart imposes
on American taxpayers. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest recipients of
corporate welfare in the world. Year after year, Wal-Mart’s low pay and
insufficient employee benefits programs leave hundreds of thousands of
Wal-Mart workers to rely on Medicaid, food stamps, and public housing
assistance to make ends meet. Call it the “Wal-Mart Tax.” It costs
American taxpayers at least $1.5 billion in federal tax dollars every year,
and hundreds of millions more in state and local subsidy costs.
WalMartWatch.com, 2005
The Wal-Mart Tax: A Review of Studies Examining Employers' Health Care Cost-Shifting
Recent studies in 13 states have examined the extent to which employers’ workers utilize
public health programs to secure health coverage for themselves and their families.
As the following summary of those analyses reflects, in each one of these states,
Wal-Mart ranks at or near the very top of the list of employers that are shifting to the
public the cost of providing health care for their workers. In so doing, Wal-Mart is directly
contributing to the nation’s Medicaid crisis.
AFL-CIO, 2005
The Quality of Work at Wal-Mart
This paper examines the structure of Wal-Mart's store operations and discusses how its technology,
culture and management structure are used in conjunction with official policies and covert practices
to shape the experience of Wal-Mart's workers.
Brandeis University, Women's Studies Research Center, 2004
The Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs
This study is the first to quantify the fiscal costs of Wal-Mart’s substandard wages and benefits on public
safety net programs in California. It also explores the potential impact on public programs of Wal-Mart’s
competitive effect on industry standards.
Berkeley Labor Center, 2004
Shopping for Subsidies
...What is not widely known is that this wealthy company’s [Wal-Mart's] aggressive U.S. expansion has
frequently been financed in part by taxpayers through economic development
subsidies. This report, the first national study of the subject, documents more than $1
billion in such subsidies from state and local governments to Wal-Mart; the actual total
is certainly far higher, but the records are scattered in thousands of places and many
subsidies are undisclosed.
Good Jobs First, 2004
Wal-Mart and County Wide Poverty
We find, after controlling for other factors determining changes in the poverty rate over time,
that both counties with more initial (1987) Wal-Mart stores and with more additions of stores
between 1987 and 1998 experienced greater increases (or smaller decreases) in family poverty
rates during the 1990s economic boom period. We offer three possible explanations for this
finding, including that Wal-Mart stores destroy civic capacity in the communities in which
they locate by driving out local entrepreneurs and community leaders.
Penn State University, 2004
Wal-Mart: An Example of Why Workers Remain Uninsured and Underinsured
Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest company, largest private employer and a highly
profitable corporation. For better or worse, it must be seen as a leader on benefits—and
indeed, the company views itself as a standard-setter in the area of health care. The Wal-
Mart model turns on severe coverage restrictions, large costs for workers and gaps in
benefits. That this model could become the one other employers follow is cause for
concern for all of us.
AFL-CIO, 2003
Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities
There is strong evidence that rural communities in the United States have been
more adversely impacted by the discount mass merchandisers (sometimes referred to as
the Wal-Mart phenomenon) than by any other factors in recent times. Studies in Iowa
have shown that some small towns lose up to 47 percent of their retail trade after 10 years
of Wal-Mart stores nearby (Stone 1997).
Iowa State University, 1997