Today it was announced that Wal-Mart plans to raise the hourly salaries of its employees. This raise will be from $7.25/hr to $9.00/hr. In addition to average hourly workers (checkout employees, greeters, stock people), the management of the store will be given a raise of about $2/hr.

The fact that Walmart paid its employees so much under the minimum wage of $8.75, which was implemented this year, for so long truly baffles me. It is a complete crisis in our economy that some of the hardest working people in our society earn the lowest wages. Now, I'm in no way stating that Walmart employees work the hardest out of all of the employees in America. That's definitely not the case; but it is abhorrent that these employees, many of whom have families to support, could not even live above the (absurdly low) poverty line in our country, even if they were to work over 40 hours a week, every single week of the year.

Here's a story that came out last year that really stuck out to me: a woman died in her car due to gasoline inhalation while parked in a parking lot taking a nap. This woman was on the way to one of her three minimum-wage-paying jobs, and had gasoline tanks in the back of her car so that she would not continue to run out of gas as she shuttled back and forth between these jobs. One of them, unfortunately, was slightly ajar during the time that she became so exhausted that she had to stop and sleep in her vehicle.

This is only one of thousands of tragic situations that occurs in our 'greatest country in the world' every single day. Americans are not only struggling to put food on the table for their children, but to feed themselves, provide their families with healthcare as they work benefit-less jobs, and keep a warm and safe roof over their heads.

This chart is from 2013:

How can people live this way? Walmart is just one of so many examples of companies paying their employees way too little while they work increasingly hard. 

This bigger picture is something that I'm becoming more and more aware of as I'm getting older, and I wish I knew of a way to contribute to the resolution of this conflict. Everybody in this country should have access to basic needs. Everybody should have the opportunity to advance their economic status, and to achieve a better lifestyle instead of just striving for one.