Bernie Sanders says it's 'absurd' Walmart, with a founding family worth billions, won't raise minimum wage

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says the American people are "very tired of grotesque levels of income inequality," with Walmart being one of the biggest offenders.

Sanders has been invited by the Walmart workers' rights group United for Respect to serve as its proxy at the company's annual shareholders meeting Wednesday in Arkansas. In an interview Tuesday with USA Today, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate blasted Walmart's aversion to raising its minimum wage for workers to $15. "When you have a situation where the wealthiest family in America, which is the Walton family of Walmart, has $174 billion in wealth, it is really absurd and unacceptable that they are paying their workers starvation wages," he said.

United for Respect wants Walmart, which has roughly 1.5 million employees, to raise the company's minimum wage to $15 an hour and add a worker's representative to the board of directors. Due to low wages, Walmart's workers receive an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance, including food stamps and subsidized housing, the progressive Americans for Tax Fairness reported in 2014. "The taxpayers of this country — the working class, middle class — shouldn't have to be subsidizing the wealthiest family in this country," Sanders said.

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Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told USA Today that over the last four years, the company has increased its starting wage from $7.25 to $11 an hour, paying an average of $17.50 per hour in wages, bonuses, and benefits.