NEOAVATARA

Wal-mart, the bane of liberals because of its spotty benefits and lack of unions, is planning to open 150 stores this year, and to add up to 22,000 jobs in 2009.

Wal-Mart, still the target of criticism from union-backed groups for its pay and benefits, has improved its health insurance coverage and opened it to full- and part-time employees. The company says 94 percent of its employees have health coverage, either through Wal-Mart or another family member.  Other employee benefits include a 401(k) plan, stock purchases and discounts for workers making in-store purchases.

“At Wal-Mart, we offer competitive pay and benefits and real opportunities for our associates to advance and build careers,” Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright said. “Job creation is just one way in which we’re working hard every day to help people across this country live better.”

So here, we have Wal-mart, the world’s largest retailer, adding jobs during the worst retail environment in a generation. Pretty remarkable.

Now, let us look at the other side of the coin.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer today announced that the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts PresidentBarack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.  “It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

U.S. tax rules let companies defer paying corporate rates as high as 35 percent on most types of foreign profits as long as that money remains invested overseas. Obama says he wants to end such incentives to keep foreign profits tax-deferred so that companies would invest them in the U.S.

Microsoft reported an overall effective tax rate of 26 percent for 2008 in its last annual report. “Our effective tax rates are less than the statutory tax rate due to foreign earnings taxed at lower rates,” the report said.