Thousands of Wal-Mart employees protested working conditions over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Retail workers have many complaints, including Wal-Mart's low wages ($8.81 on average) and its recent decision to start Black Friday at 8 p.m. the night before. In a recent op-ed, Annette Bernhardt, a former visiting scholar and co-author of Low-Wage America, argues that Wal-Mart could improve workers' conditions without sacrificing its profitability:

There is nothing inevitable about Walmart's low wages, because plenty of retailers, including Costco, are profitable while paying a decent wage. In fact, a new report by Demos asked what would happen if all large retailers in the U.S. raised their starting wage to $25,000 a year (a quite modest benchmark). The researchers found that 1.5 million workers and their families would be lifted out of poverty. The cost would equal just 1 percent of total annual sales, presumably something these companies can absorb, given that many have been making record profits during the recovery (Walmart alone made more than $15 billion in profits last year). Moreover, study after study shows that when workers are paid more, they are more productive and stay on the job longer, cutting retraining and turnover costs. Still, let's say retailers passed on half the cost to consumers; Demos estimates we'd pay a mere 15 cents more in each shopping trip, or $17.73 a year.

Read Bernhardt's essay, as well as her recent study on labor standard violations in the low-wage sector.