CA Copycatting MD

The Maryland Wal-Mart bill is also being proposed in California. From the OC Register:

The bill would affect about 69 employers in California, most of whom already provide health benefits above that threshold. The main exception is Wal-Mart, which employs 70,000 people in California.

Sen. Migden contends that many Wal-Mart employees are forced to use government health benefits paid by taxpayers. "Government and entitlement programs are a safety net," she told the Chronicle. "They are not supposed to be a place employees from a major corporation are compelled to get their health care because their employer shirks that responsibility."

Wal-Mart spokesperson Kelly Hobbs told us that 73 percent of its employees in 2005, including part-time workers, were eligible for health care insurance, which is higher than the 61 percent average for the retail industry. She added that plans offered start with employee premiums of $11 per month.
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In Maryland, the law already may be hurting its employment base. Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke, who has studied the issue, told us that his research - which purposely avoided talking to Wal-Mart to maintain objectivity - suggests the new law has caused Wal-Mart to halt construction of an 800-job distribution center in impoverished Somerset County.

He said the Migden bill could damage Wal-Mart's expansion, and jobs creation, in California. He added that these state laws are promoted by unions as a way to increase costs for Wal-Mart, which mostly is not unionized.
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We urge the Assembly to not pass this new jobs-killer bill. The way to improve Californians' health insurance coverage is to reduce regulations and taxes on companies, not raise them, so that increased profits - the only way to increase wealth - can fund increased employee benefits.