CT Blue

Here’s an interesting question. Which is the most evil, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, or Apple?

“Apple, Walmart and McDonald’s are among the largest corporate employers and profit-makers in the U.S., with a total of 2.6 million employees worldwide (1.6 million in the U.S.) and combined 2012 pre-tax profits of more than $88 billion.

All three companies pay the majority of their employees low wages, poverty-level wages. This is borne out by SEC data and the press releases of the companies themselves. The only question is who gets away with the most profits while their employees are forced to tap into public money – our tax money – for food stamps and health care and other assistance.

Walmart: Underpaying the Most People

Walmart employs about 2.1 million workers, two-thirds of them in the United States. Its 2012 revenue is three times that of Apple, and about fifteen times that of McDonald’s. The company claims that its average full-time wage is $12.78 per hour. That’s just under $26,000 per year. (IBISWorld says Walmart pays associates $8.81 per hour).

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McDonald’s: Paying the Lowest Wages

McDonald’s employs 440,000 workers worldwide, most of them food servers making the median hourly wage of $9.10 an hour or less, for a maximum of about $18,200 per year. The company’s $8 billion profit, after wages are paid, works out to the same amount: $18,200 per employee.

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Apple: Making a Half-Million per Employee

Now for Apple. Like Walmart and McDonald’s, the company pays extraordinarily low wages to its store workers, an average of about $12 per hour, or $24,000 per year for a full-time employee. In-store salespeople make up about half of the total workforce.

With 80,000 worldwide employees (50,000 in the U.S.) and a 2012 profit of $55 billion ($19 billion declared in the U.S.), Apple made an astonishing $697,000 per employee in 2012 (almost $400,000 in the U.S.).

Apple, of course, more than the other two companies discussed here, has numerous high-paying positions in engineering, design, programming, marketing, etc. Reports by two independent salary trackers indicate that the overall average salary at Apple is about $50,000. Even with this much higher figure, Apple pays its U.S. employees only $1 for every $8 in profits.

(via Buzzflash)

Much as I hate to admit it, my money’s on Apple.