After wrangling with Amazon, Bernie Sanders has set his sights on Walmart
- Sen. Bernie Sanders is pressuring Walmart to raise its minimum wage.
- Previously, the senator from Vermont took on Amazon over its pay - and won.
- Sanders will introduce a new bill that will ban stock buybacks for companies that pay workers under $15 an hour.
Bernie Sanders clashed with Amazon over its minimum wage - and prevailed. The online retailer bumped its minimum wage up to $15 an hour.
But the senator from Vermont isn't finished wrangling with major companies over wages. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Sanders and California representative Ro Khanna are introducing legislation - the "Stop Walmart Act" - to compel Walmart to boost its minimum wage to $15 an hour.
"Most Walmart retail workers are working for horrendously low wages with minimal benefits," Sanders told the Washington Post. "The wealthiest family in America must pay its workers a living wage, and the Stop Walmart Act will do just that. Amazon did the right thing by raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Walmart can and must do the same."
Read more: Amazon just intensified the war against Walmart
Specifically, the bill proposes banning corporations like Walmart from buying back stock unless they raise wages to a minimum of $15 an hour. Markets Insider reported that share buybacks compromised "a solid backbone of the stock market's continued growth."
The bill also demands that such companies provide benefits like a week of sick leave and take steps to tamp down on CEO compensation.
In a statement to the Washington Post, a Walmart representative said "the company has already raised starting wages by more than 50 percent in the last three years."
The retailer's minimum wage was raised to $11 an hour back in January. That's still lower than the hourly wage offered by competitors like IKEA, Target, and Costco.
Business Insider previously reported that the median annual pay of Walmart workers - both full- and part-time - amounted to $19,177 in 2017.
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