Unemployment is 8% nationally on first $ 9600

 

 

Wal-Mart Fights Bill Listing Workers on Public Health Care

Unemployment rate  il unemplyement rate employers  walmart BS

 

 

 

Unemployment taxes

FUTA is Federal Unemployment

Computing the tax. The FUTA tax is imposed at a single flat rate on the first $7,000 of wages that you pay each employee. Once an employee's wages for the calendar year exceed $7,000, you have no further FUTA liability for that employee for the year.

The FUTA tax rate is a flat 6.2 percent on the first $7,000.. However, you can generally claim credits against your gross FUTA tax to reflect the state unemployment taxes you pay. If you paid all your state unemployment taxes on time, and before the due date of your FUTA tax return, you'll be allowed to claim a credit equal to 5.4 percent of your federally taxable wages. This will effectively reduce the FUTA tax rate to 0.8 percent. The fact that your actual state tax rate is far below 5.4 percent doesn't matter — the federal credit is fixed at that rate.

The FUTA tax is scheduled to decrease to 6.0 percent, which means an effective rate of 0.6 percent, effective January 1, 2008. However, this decrease has been postponed in the past and may well be postponed in the futureTexas umemployment rates

 

Wal-Mart's average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22
per hour!  The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but,
fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more, as
full time. There are no health care benefits unless you have worked for the
company for two years. With a turnover rate averaging above 50% per year,
only 38% of their 1.3 million employees have health care coverage.  In
California alone it's estimated that the taxpayers pay over $20 million
annually to subsidize public health care benefits for these employees who
get none from this behemoth corporation.
This company runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy
American". In 2001 they moved their world-wide
purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese
goods in the US, purchasing over $10 billion of Chinese made products
annually.  Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor
hell-holes, China is famous for.
 

   Wal-Mart says 56 percent of its workers are covered through the company's health plan. Premiums start at $40 a month for single workers and $155 for families. The rest are covered by other private and public health plans.

    But critics say Wal-Mart's long waiting period to qualify for health coverage (six months for full-time employees and two years for part-timers), coupled with the health program's $1,000 deductible, keeps it out of reach for most working families.

    As a result, critics say, families are turning to public aid just as most states and the federal government are seeking to scale back Medicaid.

 

 

And, figures suggest that Wal-Mart will not be appearing on any "Greatest Places to Work" lists anytime soon. According to the Economist, Wal-Mart's turnover rate is 44 percent. At some stores, the annual turnover is as high as 300%. Wal-Mart has been cited for 1,371 Child Labor Law violations. Following a 21-state sting operation, Wal-Mart is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation for its use and abuse of undocumented workers with no benefits or overtime pay protections. Its strong-arm tactics have subjected Wal-Mart to more than 40 National Labor Relations Board complaints for everything from intimidating workers to unlawful dismissal of union supporters.
 

 

 

 

 

Profit Sharing & 401(k). In recent years, we have contributed up to 4 percent of an associate’s eligible pay to a combined Profit Sharing/401(k) Plan.
More than 425,000 Wal-Mart employees, most of them women, have no company-provided health coverage. Buy own stock
 

Sixty percent of our associates are female at Walmart and women make up just over forty percent of our managerial population, including professionals such as opticians and pharmacists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than 1.2 million Associates work at Wal-Mart in the U.S.

Health care. We insure more than 500,000 associates, including many family members, who pay as little as $17.50 for individual coverage and $70.50 for family coverage bi-weekly. Unlike many plans, after the first year, Wal-Mart’s Associates’ Medical Plan has no lifetime maximum for most expenses, protecting our associates against catastrophic loss and financial ruin.  Historically, Wal-Mart has paid about two-thirds of the cost of the Associates' Medical Plan.

Wal-Mart is a leading employer of Hispanics in the U.S. with more than 775,000 females; 139,000 Hispanic associates; a leading employer of African Americans with more than 208,000 African Americans; and an employer of more than 220,000 seniors who are 55 and older.

 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is fighting legislation that would let Minnesotans know how many of its workers are on public health care assistance in this state.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant recently sent two executives to St. Paul to lobby against the bill, which the Legislature may vote on in special session this month.

"This is not health care reform," said Nate Hurst, public and government relations manager for Wal-Mart. "This is a campaign against Wal-Mart."

The legislation would create a list of companies whose workers are enrolled in MinnesotaCare and other government health care programs.

Proponents of the bill, whose chief author is Sen. Becky Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, say the public has a right to know which employers are draining the state's public health care system.
Last fiscal year, the state spent $270.2 million for MinnesotaCare, which provides assistance for people who don't have access to affordable insurance.

"If it's true what people say, that big multinational companies are outsourcing health care to taxpayers, then it would be good to have a handle on which ones," said Rep. Sheldon Johnson, DFL-St. Paul. "It's just information."

In other states that have compiled such lists, Wal-Mart is at or near the top among employers with workers enrolled in state medical assistance.

The state of Wisconsin reported last week that Wal-Mart employees topped the list of BadgerCare recipients, a health care program for low-income residents.

A bill there would force retailers to reimburse the state for providing the health care needs for their underpaid and underinsured employees. The bill would apply only to stores meeting certain criteria, such as stores that exceed $20 million in sales in a taxable year and allocate less than 10 percent of payroll to employees' health insurance.

Nationwide, 24 states have bills pending that would create lists of employers with large numbers of workers enrolled in public health programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.

Labor groups, such as the United Food and Commercial Workers union, worry that other retailers will reduce their health care benefits in order to remain competitive with Wal-Mart. They've used the lists as evidence that Wal-Mart is not providing affordable health care insurance to its employees.

Wal-Mart officials insist such rankings warp its record. As the nation's largest employer, Wal-Mart inevitably will fall at or near the top of most state rankings, the company said.

As of October, Wal-Mart employed 17,329 people in Minnesota.

"We'll be the largest on any list, just because of our size," Hurst said.

The company is also concerned about how the data are collected, Hurst said. If a state compiles a list in December, for instance, the numbers may look abnormally high because Wal-Mart employs a large amount of seasonal employees.

In a May 18 letter to state legislators, Wal-Mart said it helps lift employees off public health care by giving them jobs.

Wal-Mart estimates that 160,000 people have been taken off the list of public health care programs nationwide by accepting jobs at Wal-Mart.

"Please be assured that we do not encourage the use of public assistance, and we do not structure our plans with the idea that there will be a governmental safety net," Wal-Mart said in the letter.


 

Study: Thousands of Wal-Mart workers on TennCare

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chattanooga - A study shows that thousands of Wal-Mart employees are on TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program, providing fodder for critics who say the retail giant and other businesses are shifting costs for low-paid employees onto the backs of taxpayers.

Wal-Mart, with 9,617 employees listed as receiving benefits from the program, said it offers health plan available to full-time workers after six months and to part-time employees after two years. Critics said the high cost of the retailer's insurance is out of reach for low-income workers who are forced to turn to publicly financed health insurance.

The figures come from a survey conducted during the past two months of TennCare rolls and labor Department data, requested by the Chattanooga Times Free Press. It shows the number of TennCare enrollees who were employed by Tennessee companies at some point during the year. The top 20 companies on the list employed a total of 68,303 TennCare recipients roughly 6 percent of the 1.3 million people now on the state's health care plan.

State officials said they were going to keep looking at the data, as it may be somewhat imprecise because of high employee turnover rates at the private companies. “The fact of the matter is there is a trend here that large employers have a large number of TennCare enrollees on the rolls, and we have to find out what's behind that,” said TennCare spokesman Michael Drescher.

Wal-Mart, with about 25 percent of the company's 37,000 workers on TennCare, tops the list of businesses with employees on the expanded Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman called the retailer s benefits “competitive.” “If there are some of our associates who have decided for some reason not to participate in our health plan, we don't know the reason,” he said.

Phil Mattera, a research director of Good Jobs First and a Wal-Mart critic, said the list of employers with Medicaid-dependent workers shouldn't include the largest and most profitable companies in the country. “There was a time when the biggest company in the land — Ford Motor Co. in the early 20th century and General Motors after World War II — set the pace for raising wages and benefits,” he said. “But Wal-Mart seems to be leading us downhill and, in effect, using the government to help pay for its expansion by not giving its workers a sufficient health benefit plan, in many instances.”

Last year, a study in California found that Wal-Mart workers there cost that state an estimated $32 million because of their reliance on public assistance programs. “Wal-Mart, in its effort to drive costs down, shifts part of their costs on to the public sector,” said Ken Jacobs, deputy chairman at the institute who authored the study on the “Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart jobs.”

Temporary employment agencies represented~ seven of the top 10 companies with employees on TennCare, while Chattanooga-based Krystal Co. was ninth on the list with 3,183 employees. Goodlettsville-based discount retailer Dollar General was 10th with 3,002 employees on TennCare. “It's egregious,” said Jerry Lee, president of the Tennessee AFL-CIO. “The AFL has long been aware that these kinds of companies are putting their employees on the public dole.”

Legislation in the works this year would require the state to track all companies that have at least 25 employees or their family members enrolled in TennCare.

Gordon Bonnyman, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, suggested that the state should offer reforms that allow large companies such as Wal-Mart with low-wage earners to buy into TennCare or other insurance health insurance. “It would be good if we could get private employers to pitch in and do their fair share, and take advantage of the economy of scale and volume that TennCare provides,” Bonnyman said, “Nobody understands volume discounts like Wal-Mart.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you are a TennCare patient who has received a letter stating that you have been dropped from the program, we'd like to talk to you. Please e-mail Staff Writer David McGee at dmcgee@bristolnews.com or call (276) 646-2532.

Copyright January 21, 2005 Bristol Herald Courier

A study of Tennessee businesses shows thousands of Wal-Mart employees are on TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program, providing fodder for critics who say some businesses are shifting costs for low-paid employees onto the backs of taxpayers.

Wal-Mart, with 9,617 employees listed as receiving benefits from the program, said

ALABAMA: The Montgomery Advertiser found in February 2005 that families of Wal-Mart workers are the top dependents on Medicaid. 3,864 children of Wal-Mart employees depend on Medicaid for health insurance. The next highest company, McDonald's, has 1,615 employee's children on the program.

FLORIDA: In December 2004, the Tallahassee Democrat revealed that 50,000 workers and their dependents rely on Medicaid for health insurance. McDonald's was the worst culprit in the Sunshine State, with 1,792 claims filed. Wal-Mart had 756.

GEORGIA: 10,261 children of Wal-Mart workers rely on PeachCare for Kids, the state's program for low-income families, according to a February 2004 report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

TENNESSEE: 25% of Wal-Mart workers in Tennesse are enrolled in TennCare, the state's health plan for the poor and uninsured, according to a January 2005 investigation by the Memphis Commercial Appeal. That's 9,617 employees.

WEST VIRGINIA: The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail revealed last December that 452 Wal-Mart workers in the state have children dependent on the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the most of any company.

(Note: this isn't just a Southern thing, of course. The survey also looks at reports out of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, and Wisconsin. And I notice a story out today showing that 845 Wal-Mart employees in Iowa rely on Medicaid for health insurance.)

Most disturbing of all is that Wal-Mart is driving up public assistance caseloads at the very time state lawmakers are demanding sharp cuts in these programs. For example, Tennessee's excellent TennCare program is under assault due to rising costs (in part caused by Wal-Mart and kindred companies), with proposed cuts that could strip thousands of health coverage.

And as if that isn't bad enough, an earlier report by GJF shows that state and local governments have given Wal-Mart subsidiaries over $1 billion in tax breaks and other "incentives" to set up their stores -- money the company clearly doesn't need.

So the public is paying twice -- in direct corporate welfare, and indirect costs from workers driven into poverty -- to subsidize a giant company that's swimming in profits, exploits workers, busts unions, drains community resources, exacerbates urban sprawl, violates human rights abroad, and otherwise violates the public trust.

Where's the "moral values" crowd when you need them?

posted by Chris Kromm at 4:45 PM | Email this post | Post a Comment  

 

 

 

PEACHCARE FOR KIDS
• What it is: A health care program for uninsured children in Georgia, part of a national initiative begun in the Clinton administration.
 
• Eligibility: Available to children up to age 18 whose families meet income criteria based on federal poverty guidelines. For a family of four, $43,260 a year is the family income limit. State employees' children aren't eligible.
 
• Member costs: Premiums are required for children ages 6 and older. The cost per child per month is $10. Families with two or more children pay $20 for all children. Georgia is considering raising those premiums.
 
Source: Georgia Department of Community Health
 
WHO USES PEACHCARE
 
Employers with 300 or more children in PeachCare in September 2002:
 
Self-employed 12,789
 
Wal-Mart 10,261
 
Publix 734
 
Shaw Industries 669
 
Mohawk Industries 657
 
Cagle's Keystone Foods 463
 
McDonald's 454
 
Home Depot 421
 
Kroger 377
 
U.S. post office 354
 
Construction 328
 
Sears 325
 
Randstad Staffing 305
 
Grady Healthcare 300
 
Source: Department of Community Health. The figures are self-reported information from PeachCare applications.

One recent study, conducted by a pro-labor group called Good Jobs First, estimated that Wal-Mart has benefited from at least $1 billion in assorted subsidies for its stores and distribution centers.

In many cases, it appears local and state politicians are eager to offer special favors to Wal-Mart, which in turn promises tax revenue, jobs and possibly a ripple effect of redevelopment. With so many communities willing to waive Wal-Mart's property taxes, discount its land and build its parking lots, the company is in position to demand such special favors from any town or county where it is considering locating.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, for example, has helped Wal-Mart set up four distribution centers. In James City, the county and state handed over a combined $578,000 in grants. The Governor's Opportunity Fund issued a $500,000 grant to Wal-Mart in Louisa Co. and a $1.5 million grant for the distribution center in Mount Crawford. In Sutherland, the state government used a $700,000 Community Development Block Grant (federal money) to help build infrastructure for the distribution center site in 1991.

 

 

 

Social Security

 
 
 


Paying FICA taxes

 

Social Security is the federal retirement and security income program run by the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). Social Security has existed since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

 Social Security's basic program of paying a retirement-income benefit to workers is not a means-tested benefit. Every worker who pays into the program, rich or poor, receives a basic benefit.

 You can begin to receive Social Security retirement benefits when you reach age 62. However, the amount of your benefit is reduced. You have the option of waiting until you reach the age at which you receive your full benefits, which is presently between age 65 and age 66, depending on your year of birth.

In addition to retirement-income benefits, Social Security includes such means-tested programs as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and disability insurance. Means-testing requires you to show eligibility to receive supplemental benefits.

 When you turn age 65, you can also apply to Medicare, the federal health insurance program for senior citizens and disabled persons.

 Social Security is funded by contributions that you and other working Americans make during your working years. These contributions are in the form of FICA taxes, named after the Federal Income Contributions Act. Because they are deducted from your gross pay, FICA taxes are also called payroll taxes.

 FICA taxes are paid into the Old Age Survivors and Disability (OASDI) and Medicare trust accounts. For 2005, you pay 6.2% of your first $90,000 income to OASDI. Your employer also pays out of its pocket the same percentage. This results in a combined contribution equal to 12.4% of the amount of your income. If you are self-employed, you contribute 12.4% of your own income.

 In addition to the OASDI fund, your FICA taxes contribute 1.45% of your income to the Medicare program. The entire amount of this contribution is paid to Medicare's hospital insurance fund (HI). There is no income limit for Medicare contributions—you pay 1.45% of your income on all earned income. Your employer contributes a matching percentage to the fund. This results in a combined contribution equal to 2.9% of the amount of your income. If self-employed, you contribute 2.9% of your own income.

 Your FICA contributions add up to 7.65% of your first $90,000 of income in 2005. For higher incomes, your FICA contributions consist only of the Medicare portion. Combined FICA contributions (you and your employer) equal 15.3% of the amount of your first $90,000 of income. The following table summarizes the components of FICA taxes:

 FICA tax rates and income limits for 2005:
 


 
FICA Category Tax rate Income limit
OASDI 6.20% $90,000
Medicare (HI) 1.45% No limit
OASDI + HI 7.65% $90,000 (OASDI)
Employer contribution 7.65% $90,000 (OASDI)
Combined contribution 15.3% $90,000 (OASDI)



Most employers are required to withhold FICA taxes but there are some exceptions. Federal government employees have only been eligible to participate in Social Security since 1984. As a result, some older employees have opted to remain with the former Civil Service Retirement System. Some state and local government employee retirement plans are also not covered by Social Security.


 The above information is educational and should not be interpreted as financial advice. For advice that is specific to your circumstances, see the Web site of the Social Security Administration or call (800) 772-1213.

 Next, we'll look at how you earn Social Security benefits, how earning income can reduce your benefits, and the taxation of benefits.

 

 

 

 

Nike factory in China

 

 

Nike factory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 


Wal-Mart Distribution Centers Capture $150 Million in Subsidies

Since the 1980s, Wal-Mart has received at least $150 million in local, state, and federal subsidies to build 47 distribution centers in 32 states, according to a study by The Palm Beach Post.

Only those subsidies that have been quantified in published reports were counted. "That number likely grows by tens of millions when unquantified breaks, such as government bond financing for construction, and ongoing breaks, such as those given to businesses in enterprise zones, are included," the newspaper notes.

The Post only reviewed subsidies for distribution centers. It did not examine the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives Wal-Mart has received for its retail stores.

Wal-Mart currently has 84 distribution centers in the U.S.. The retailer has been building new centers at a furious pace to support new stores and its expansion into groceries.

Wal-Mart generally expects to receive government assistance for new distribution facilities and sometimes plays neighboring towns against one another to get the best deals. The centers vary in size from about 400,000 square feet to well over 1 million. They employ anywhere from 150 to 1,000 people at wages of about $8-$10 an hour.

Among the biggest subsidies documented by the report: $17 million in state and local incentives for distribution center in Lewiston, Maine; a $9 million handout in Bartlesville, Oklahoma; and $8.9 million free land and tax credits provided in Macclenny, Florida.

Earlier this year, activists in Killingly, Connecticut, had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to make public the details of $46 million in state and local subsidies earmarked for a Wal-Mart distribution center. Public outcry led the Killingly zoning board to effectively kill the project by denying a request to rezone the property.

Such subsidies are rarely, if at all, made available to locally owned businesses and their distributors. This has given Wal-Mart an unfair advantage in the market. Moreover, there's little to justify the subsidies from an economic development standpoint. While distribution centers may boost employment locally, these new jobs generally come at the expense of existing distribution jobs in the surrounding region. Dozens of supermarket distributors have gone out of business since Wal-Mart began selling groceries.