An examination of the Walmart story from, you know, actual economists.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/did-tax-ref...mployees-raise
As economists, we are admittedly prone to being cynical. But when a CEO whose compensation depends on happy shareholders says he’s giving more of their profits to employees just because those profits are about to get bigger, we go beyond cynicism. We go for the data.
As shown in the graphic above, this is the third wage hike that Walmart has announced in the past two years. Each one was preceded by a period of accelerating private retail wage growth—which is precisely what a cynical economist would expect. Firms raise wages when they need to attract and retain workers.
But that makes for crummy PR. Much better to share credit for rising wages with lawmakers who cut your taxes. Gives them motivation to keep the goodies coming.