Less than a week after the Maryland legislature over-rode the Governor’s veto of a bill requiring large employers, principally Wal-Mart, to spend a designated percentage of their payroll on health care for employees, the state of West Virginia is apparently considering doing ths same thing:
Taking aim at West Virginia’s largest private employer, state lawmakers are following the lead of neighboring Maryland with a bipartisan bill that would make Wal-Mart pony up more money for its workers’ health care costs.
The West Virginia Fair Share Health Care Act would require any employer with 10,000 or more workers in the state to spend at least 8 percent of its wages for health care costs.
Those that don’t must pay the difference to the state’s Medicaid insurance program for the poor.
Like the Maryland law, this bill will become known as the Wal-Mart law, because that is precisely who it is targeted against:
With 12,054 employees at 35 locations across the state, including four Sam’s Clubs, only Wal-Mart appears to fall under the bill’s provisions.
The bill does not mention Wal-Mart or any employer by name.
Of course it doesn’t
And it doesn’t stop there, the Washington Post is reporting that a similar bill is also being introduced in Kentucky.
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Targeting WalMart
Technorati Tags: WalMart, Maryland, West Virginia, Health Care
