I claim that paying its workers a living wage is part of minimum wage employers' OPEX on the basis that, if we withdrew the welfare system, Wal-Mart could not retain workers at its current wages and would have to pay them a great deal more.
You're saying that welfare produces downward pressure on wages. But I believe it's the opposite: If someone paid you $1,000,000/year whether you were working or not, if you're rational you'd never take a job that paid less than the marginal value of your leisure time. The latter is substantially improved by having $1,000,000/year of unconditional income, of course!
Welfare dollars (at least the unconditional sort, unlike, say, EITC, which is deliberately a wage subsidy) are in competition with employers for their potential employees' time and effort, not a subsidy.
You're forgetting the price floor imposed by cost of living, which is already higher than minimum wage. For your claim to hold, it would have to be the case that workers could survive on less than minimum wage.
You're saying that welfare produces downward pressure on wages. But I believe it's the opposite: If someone paid you $1,000,000/year whether you were working or not, if you're rational you'd never take a job that paid less than the marginal value of your leisure time. The latter is substantially improved by having $1,000,000/year of unconditional income, of course!
Welfare dollars (at least the unconditional sort, unlike, say, EITC, which is deliberately a wage subsidy) are in competition with employers for their potential employees' time and effort, not a subsidy.