AFL-CIO position on Wal-Mart’s health insurance — blame the employer, not the system

AFL-CIO’s website has this: “Is Wal-Mart Setting the (Low) Standard for Employer Health Coverage?”

Guess the answer? Of course they are. But why? Because they can get the labor they need cheaply enough without offering expensive health plans.

AFL-CIO observes:

“Wal-Mart’s bottom-of-the-barrel wages averaging $7.50 to $8.50 an hour leave workers well below the federal poverty line for three- or four-person families. . ..These low wages, combined with high health insurance payments, make health coverage unaffordable for 46 percent of Wal-Mart workers. In 2001, Wal-Mart workers paid between 41 percent and 47 percent of the total cost of the company health plan, while similar employees at large companies pay 16 percent of the total premium for single coverage and 25 percent for family coverage.”

So it’s the employer’s fault that it won’t pay an extra $3-$4 per hour per employee for full family coverage, increasing the effective wage by 50%? No, it’s the fault of the system that won’t provide reasonable options for coverage to the working poor (and many others, including myself)

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