Walmart wants to bring lots and lots of jobs to Desert Hot Springs. But, dammit, they sure as hell do not want to pay anyone working those jobs an actual living wage.
The retail store has owned land in the city for years and has hinted at maybe building a store there. But, not if the city council tries to make wages in their city enough for residents to actually be able to afford food, clothing, and maybe even a roof.
As the council considers raising the city’s minimum wage for retailers with gross sales of $500 million or more in the city, Walmart has come out fighting – with what one would assume would be thousands of dollars spent on this full-page advertisement that ran in Sunday’s Desert Sun newspaper:
The ad, which did not feature any of Walmart’s Cyber Monday deals, describes how much people love Walmart, want Walmart in their town, and how Walmart loves to take care of employees by paying good wages something about jobs that may or may not ever happen because who knows if a Desert Hot Springs Walmart will ever actually be built.
Thanks for supporting your local newspaper Gannett, Walmart. Maybe get crazy and try spending some of that full-page ad money on your employees salaries next time.
UPDATE: The city council caved and Walmart wins.
BREAKING: Desert Hot Springs leaders kill move to increase minimum retail wage on 4-1 procedural vote. @MyDesert story coming.
— Kia Farhang (@KiaFarhang) December 2, 2015
