The new Fort Wayne Wal-Mart’s 350 employees will exacerbate the costs to taxpayers. At some Wal-Marts, the company has supplied new employees with information on available social services. California estimated it paid $86 million annually in public assistance to Wal-Mart workers. Connecticut estimates Wal-Mart workers cost its low-income state health care program $5.4 million annually. More than 70 percent of Wal-Mart workers are women. Seventy-five percent of Wal-Mart workers earn under $10 an hour. Are these the kind of jobs Fort Wayne needs?
Wal-Mart claims that it provides health benefits to its workers. A part-time worker must work at Wal-Mart for a minimum of two years to be eligible for health benefits. When eligible, most Wal-Mart workers cannot afford health benefits that cost more than 20 percent of the average worker’s salary. Wal-Mart workers have no choice but to rely on publicly assisted health care. Even upper-management cannot afford the health benefits Wal-Mart “provides.”
Taxpayers in other communities around the country subsidize Wal-Mart under the guise of “economic development.” According to a recent report by the non-profit organization Good Jobs First, local communities have given Wal-Mart over $1 billion in subsidies in the form of free or reduced-priced land, infrastructure assistance, property tax abatements, state income tax rebates or exemptions, enterprise zone status, job training and worker recruitment funds, tax-exempt bond financing and outright cash handouts. How much money is the Fort Wayne/Allen County Economic Development Alliance doling out to Wal-Mart?
