By Nina Babich.
Lowe’s and Home Depot in Kansas City each recently told their workers that full time jobs would now be half time. Managers were even reduced to half-time; two people will now be used to fill one manager position instead. The reason? The employers don’t want to have to provide health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Heaven forbid stock holders should realize lower returns because those pesky employees need full time work and health insurance. Heaven forbid the full time executives of the firms should suffer the same fate as their employees. Two half-time CEOs with no benefits to share a single CEO position? It will never happen. The chasm between the haves and the have-nots just got wider.
The decisions being made that throw more of our neighbors into low-income and poverty brackets are invisible to the shopper. We lack the information to make informed social decisions about where we shop, and in some cases, lack alternative places to shop because the big box stores have driven out the competition. Two big questions:
- Why should we care?
- What do we do about it?
First, we should care because more low income people negatively impacts our society at large. Low income children perform less well in school, and families suffer more instability. Parents that have to juggle two jobs have less time to spend with children and lose their work/life balance. Many studies have documented the psychological and financial impact of wage losses on families and the additional drain placed on safety net systems. Short term, we may barely notice, but long term, our economy and our national sense of who and what we are as a land of opportunity will suffer.
What do we do about it?
- We can educate the public about the implications of the growing have and have not society.
- We can identify employers that devalue their employees.
- We can express our concerns by where we shop and let the firms know why they will no longer receive our business.
- We can advertise firms that value their workforce (e.g., Cosco) and encourage shopping there over those that don’t (e.g, Sam’s Club).
A firm like CSW has a responsibility to help our clients understand what is going on in their communities and develop appropriate responses. There are partners such as unions and the National Asset Building Coalition that can help us push for quality jobs that enable people to be self-sufficient without sacrificing their families. Let’s open our eyes and take a position.
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