Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will introduce legislation Thursday with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., intended to force Walmart to pay workers at least $15 an hour. The bill would institute fines for corporations that buy back their own stock unless they set their workers’ base pay at that level.
“Last year, 4 members of the Walton family of Walmart made $12.7 billion in 1 day. It would take a full-time Walmart worker making $11/hr over 653,000 years to make that much. Thursday, @RepRoKhanna and I are introducing legislation to make Walmart pay its workers a living wage,” Sanders tweeted Tuesday.
[Also read: Walmart’s online sales balloon in run-up to holiday shopping season]
Last year, 4 members of the Walton family of Walmart made $12.7 billion in 1 day.
It would take a full-time Walmart worker making $11/hr over 653,000 years to make that much.
Thursday, @RepRoKhanna and I are introducing legislation to make Walmart pay its workers a living wage.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 13, 2018
In another tweet Sanders fumed, “The Walton family of Walmart owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans.”
The legislation will be named the Stop Walmart Act, CNN reported Wednesday.
Sanders has been pushing individual companies to adopt the $15 an hour wage, calling on McDonald’s Corporation last month to pay that and threatening a public pressure campaign if it didn’t. In early August, Amazon announced it would make $15 the base pay for its employees, following a similar campaign by Sanders, which also included legislation: The Stop BEZOS Act.
Stock buybacks are common practice by corporations to reward shareholders. Sanders and Khanna’s proposal would blunt corporations ability to do that. The legislation would be unlikely to pass the GOP-controlled Senate.
A spokesman for Walmart could not reached for comment.
