Walmart announced last week that the nation's largest private employer will cut health care benefits for full-time workers and eliminate insurance for new part-time workers. The company will also begin charging smokers higher premiums. ("Tobacco users generally consume about 25 percent more health care services than nontobacco users," a spokesman said.)
Since Walmart's announcement dovetailed with the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, it was only natural that some demonstrators would turn their fury against the nation's largest retailer. After all, Walmart's story seemed to prove the point that corporations continue to put profits over people. (Plus, to change a chant to "Occupy Walmart!" required only a one-syllable fix.)
In fact, Walmart's announcement does fit into the OWS narrative of income inequality and unsteady wage gains for the middle and lower class. But the real story is not as simple as profits over people. Walmart's sheer size makes it a target for class warriors, but when it comes to health insurance, the retailer has been ever-so slightly ahead of the curve. Only one out of six employers offer health care to part-timers, as Sarah Kliff notes. Walmart is the 16 percent. (Or it's the 42 percent, if you look at the largest employers, exclusively.)