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FEBRUARY 3, 2006
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tions in the world.”
The Washington Legislature has in-
troduced a labor-backed bill that would
require companies with 5,000 or more
employees to put a minimum of 9 per-
cent of their payroll costs toward health
care benefits.
Citing state and federal confidential-
ity rules, the state last month provided
two reports to only a handful of legisla-
tors and legislative staff members.
Copies of those reports were leaked to
The Seattle Times.
One of the reports shows that
throughout 2004 an average 3,180 Wal-
Mart employees were receiving state-
funded medical assistance, including
Medicaid, for themselves or for a de-
pendent. The other report shows that
456 Wal-Mart employees were on the
state’s Basic Health Plan that year.
Nearly 1,800 employees in those pro-
grams worked full-time.
The Basic Health Plan (BHP) is
funded entirely by the state and covers
low-income adults — primarily fami-
lies with incomes below 200 percent of
the federal poverty level. That would
mean a family of four with an income
of about $38,000 would be eligible.
The state reports showed McDon-
ald’s restaurants second with an average
1,824 employees receiving Medicaid
benefits in 2004 and Safeway third with
1,539 employees on Medicaid . Nearly
all of those were part-time employees.
Electricians, Carpenters, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofer, Asbestos Workers, Family, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers
OLYMPIA — More than 3,100
Wal-Mart employees in Washington —
nearly half of them full-time workers —
benefited from state-subsidized health
coverage in 2004, reported the Seattle
Times newspaper.
That total is much higher than previ-
ously thought. And it indicates that 22
percent of Wal-Mart’s 16,000 employ-
ees in the state were getting taxpayer-
funded health care.
The Center for a Changing Work-
force, a nonprofit public policy organi-
zation, estimates that state taxpayers
paid an estimated $9.25 million for
Wal-Mart health care subsidies in 2004.
The group estimates the cost in the
2005-2006 biennium to be $21.7 mil-
lion. The center also estimates that for
each additional store Wal-Mart opens in
Washington State, it costs taxpayers an
additional $136,000 per year in Medic-
aid subsidies alone.
“I think taxpayers should be out-
raged,” Rep. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma,
told the Seattle Times. “They are subsi-
dizing one of the wealthiest corpora-
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PAGE 3