Feb. 7, 2014
Last week President Obama urged businesses to “give America a raise.” But even if the minimum wage were raised, it wouldn’t necessarily help a huge class of low-wage employees. That’s because firms like Walmart don’t directly employ the workers hauling or selling their goods. Outsourcing allows these retailers to boast high wages for their own employees, while ignoring the labor violations and meager pay occurring lower down in their supply chains. A higher minimum wage won’t address this problem.