Tax cuts hit home

“Don’t cut corporate taxes,” they said. “The riches will only be used for share buybacks and executive perks,” they said. “The workers won’t actually benefit,” they said. It’s already looking like “they” didn’t know what they were talking about.

This week Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, became the latest major American corporation to celebrate the tax cut by granting its 1.5 million employees a well-deserved raise. Walmart is bumping its starting wage from $10 an hour to $11, which will cost the company $300 million. One-time cash bonuses of up to $1,000 per employee, based on seniority, will cost the company another $400 million. The Arkansas-based company will enhance its benefits package, too, extending maternal and parental benefits, which had previously been available only to salaried employees, to full-time hourly workers.