{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-khanna-introduce-the-stop-walmart-act-to-put-workers-over-shareholders", "Sanders, Khanna Introduce The Stop WALMART Act to Put Workers Over Shareholders", "2018-11-15", "2018", "2018-11", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sanders, Khanna Introduce The Stop WALMART Act to Put Workers Over Shareholders\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tThursday, November 15, 2018\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWASHINGTON, Nov. 15  Following the success of their campaign to raise wages at Amazon, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) launched a campaign Thursday to raise wages at Walmart and other large, profitable corporations that pay poverty-level wages.\r\nWalmartmademore than$13 billionin profits last year, while the median worker was paid just$19,177. Instead of using its profits to raise wages to a living wage of $15 an hour, Walmartplans to buyback$20 billionof its own stockover a two-year period to enrich its executives and shareholders.\r\nThe WaltonfamilyisWalmart'slargest shareholder,owning about 50 percent of its stock.It is also the wealthiest family in the country with a networth of around$180 billion.Since 1982, the wealth of the Walton family has increased about 10,000 percent, and the family now owns more wealth than the bottom40 percentof Americans.Meanwhile, 55 percent of Walmart's associates are food insecure.\r\nSanders and Khanna's legislation, The Stop WALMART Act, would prohibit large employers from buying back stock unless they:\r\n \r\nPay all employees at least $15 an hour, including part-time employees, independent contractors, and franchisee employees;\r\nAllow employees to earn up to 7 days of paid sick leave to be used to care for themselves or a family member; and\r\nEnsure that CEO compensation (or the highest paid employee) is not more than 150 times the median pay of all employees. The CEO of Walmart currently makes 1,188 times as much as the median worker.\r\n \r\nWhile tens of thousands of Walmart workers are struggling to survive, Alice Walton had no problem amassing a private art collection worth half a billion dollars,\" Sanders said. \"Enough is enough. The time is long overdue for the Walton family to pay its workers a living wageIf large, profitable corporations like Amazon and Disney can pay all of their workers a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, so can Walmart.\"\r\nWalmart has refused to pay its workers a living wage, resulting in costs for taxpayers of $6.2 billion for basic necessities for survival, food stamps and housing assistance. If Walmart can find $20 billion for stock buybacks to further enrich the Waltons, it can find the money to raise the pay of its workers to a living wage. It's time to put workers over wealthy corporation  across our nation, one company at a time. Today, I'm proud to join my friend, Senator Sanders, in introducing the Stop WALMART Act to raise wages for Walmart workers, Khanna said.\r\nAfter seven years of service to this company without being paid a living wage, watching Walmart spend billions on share buybacks is another slap in the face. It's not that Walmart can't get to $15, it's that the corporation would rather reward shareholders like the billionaire Waltons. Walmart associates don't want Walmart charity  we work hard and deserve to be treated with respect, with a living wage and real raises for associates like me. I'm happy to see Senator Sanders and Representative Khanna have our back. It's time for more people in Washington to step up on behalf of working folks, said Kristi Branstetter, a Walmart worker andOUR Walmartmember in Missouri.\r\nLast year, four of the Waltons made$12.7 billiondollars in one day. To make as much as those Waltons did in one day, it would take a Walmart worker working full-time earning $11 an hour over 653,000 years.\r\nFor a summary of the bill,click here.For the bill text,click here.For a letter from experts supporting the bill,click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-khanna-introduce-the-stop-walmart-act-to-put-workers-over-shareholders"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7151013016700745, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}