Sanders calls on Walmart to pay workers a $15 minimum wage

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Walmart to pay its workers a minimum wage of $15 an hour while denouncing the disparity in wealth between the founding family of the retail chain and its employees.

“Walmart workers are sick and tired of being paid starvation wages while the Walton family, the wealthiest family in America, is worth over $170 billion,” Sanders said in a statement.

{mosads}”In this country we must address the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality where the very rich get richer while 40% earn less than $15 an hour. It is time for Walmart to pay all of its workers a living wage, give them a seat at the table, stop blocking them from joining a union and allow part-time employees to work full-time jobs,” he continued.

“The greed at Walmart and throughout corporate America is destroying the social and economic fabric of America and it needs to stop,” Sanders added.

Sanders is set to attend Walmart’s annual shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Ark., on Wednesday, where the Vermont senator and presidential candidate will introduce a proposal to give hourly workers a seat on the company’s board and call for better working conditions.

“These workers need and deserve a seat at the table,” Sanders told The Washington Post in May. “If hourly workers at Walmart were well represented on its board, I doubt you would see the CEO of Walmart making over a thousand times more than its average worker.”

Sanders has frequently called on wealthy corporations to allow their workers to share in their profits. In April, he responded to the record box-office opening of “Avengers: Endgame” by calling on The Walt Disney Co. to be “truly heroic” and use the profits to “pay all of its workers a middle class wage.”