We’ve seen the private sector lead the way on the minimum wage. Now it’s doing so on gun measures.
It’s a start.
In today’s complex economy, it made sense for Walmart, Target, Costco and others to raise the minimum wage they would pay employees over the last two years when the federal government would not and probably should not do so.
Walmart, which has about 150 million shoppers around the country weekly, decided in 2016 it was in such a position that it could afford to increase pay. The retailer giant’s decision allowed it to recruit and retain better quality talent, keep its employees more satisfied and be seen as forward-thinking.
Although then-U.S. President Barack Obama had pushed for a national minimum-wage increase, his economic policies that ensured managed, regulation-heavy, slow growth were not conducive to such a general pay rise. Too many small companies were uncertain about their futures and whether they could afford to pay employees more with soaring Affordable Care Act costs and ever-increasing regulations that might even have expanded under a Hillary Clinton administration.