![\"breitbart-walmart\"](\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/breitbart-walmart.jpg\")
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Breitbart <\/a>is being deceptive, which is harmful because it\u2019s a hugely popular website that many people trust.<\/p>\n 1) Nothing in the article supports the claim that Walmart shut down this store due to either the minimum wage or \u201cunion harassment.\u201d That seems to be entirely made up.<\/p>\n 2) This is one of 269 Walmarts being shut down<\/a>, including over 100 \u201cWalmart Express\u201d stores (the smallest format of Walmart), plus a bunch of Walmart \u201cNeighborhood Markets,\u201d which are smaller than a regular Walmart (i.e., they’re as big as a large supermarket). The Walmart in LA\u2019s Chinatown, which is what the Breitbart article is about, is one of their \u201cNeighborhood Markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Since many of these closures are in states with weak unions and low minimum wages, Breitbart\u2019s headline is nonsense. <\/p>\n Most of those 269 Walmarts<\/a> aren\u2019t in areas where the minimum wage is being raised to $15. For example, 9 of the closing Wal-Marts are in Alabama, 16 are in North Carolina, and 29 are in Texas; in all those states the minimum wage is $7.25, the floor set by Federal law.<\/p>\n 3) So why did <\/em>Walmart close those stores? Mainly, it appears that they\u2019ve made a strategic decision to phase out smaller Wal-Marts. And secondly, weak holiday profits<\/a> in the entire retail sector probably figured into their decision.<\/p>\n 4) There is <\/em>a real problem here, which is that once that Walmart closes, the Chinatown neighborhood won\u2019t have a full-size supermarket. The city should try to get another supermarket – and hopefully a better supermarket – to open in that neighborhood, if necessary offering tax breaks.<\/p>\n 5) Because a relatively high number of Chinatown residents earn at or near the minimum wage, a supermarket in that neighborhood could benefit from a rising minimum wage, due to shoppers in the neighborhood having more spending money. I\u2019m not denying that there\u2019s a cost to employers of higher minimum wages, but often MW opponents focus only on the costs and ignore the benefits.<\/p>\n 6) Empirical evidence shows that the minimum wage has virtually no effect on unemployment. Or at least, no measurable effect. (Pdf link<\/a>.) That doesn\u2019t mean that no marginal businesses have ever had to lay off workers because the minimum wage went up; but in the overall economy, those businesses are replaced by other businesses that are able to function while paying reasonable wages.<\/p>\n 7) On the other hand, $15 an hour is a big jump – bigger than the jumps existing evidence has looked at. Maybe a nationwide $15 an hour minimum wage would lead to higher unemployment. But for now, only self-selected areas are going to $15 an hour – and in those areas, the limited evidence<\/a> suggests $15 an hour is sustainable. But the existing data is limited; we’ll be able to answer the question much better five years from now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Breitbart is being deceptive, which is harmful because it\u2019s a hugely popular website that many people trust. 1) Nothing in the article supports the claim that Walmart shut down this store due to either the minimum wage or \u201cunion harassment.\u201d … Continue reading