Last night my wife and I drove past our local Wal-Mart store; its huge parking lot was packed. We didn’t happen to notice (we were a ways away) any picketers. If there were any, it was nothing like the scene pictured in this International Business Times article. “I want to work full time”, “Wal-Mart Always Low Wages”, “Stop Cutting Hours” and “Stand Up Live Better” were the slogans I could make out in the picture.

The din of the leaf blower outside our front door poses a little distraction as I effort to articulate this morning’s message—our yard guy is working today. I haven’t bothered to calculate what we pay Crecencio by the hour, but apparently it’s as much or more than he would receive by bumping us for another customer. Surely, if he is underpaid he would approach me, make his demand and, depending on my response, either keep me on or move on to the opportunity that signaled him that there’s more to be made elsewhere. The last thing in the world Crecencio would do—regardless of his estimation of our annual income—is publicly protest the Mazorra family’s stinginess.

The fact that some of Wal-Mart’s employees are choosing to demonstrate tells you that Wal-Mart pays a very competitive wage for low-skilled work. The folks dawning the aforementioned slogans are receiving the best the marketplace has to offer for their skill-set (otherwise they’d be working elsewhere). If they’re to improve their lot, they’ll produce stand-out work—and thus work their way up Wal-Mart’s ladder—or devote their time off to learning the skills that would one day garner them better wages with another employer. Publicly complaining—in a personal plea or at the behest of a union—is clearly not a productive use of their spare time.