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Up in NoCal an Alameda County jury awarded $172 million today to Wal-Mart employees who had been denied their 30-minute unpaid lunch breaks. The breaks are required for anyone who works 6 hours. Wal-Mart didn't dispute that they'd jipped employees of those measely, unpaid breaks. They just tried to say they couldn't sue about it; the case has been tied up in court for four years.
After four years there's sure to be a lot of lawyers' fees to pay off, but let's say that amounts to half. That would leave $86 million for the 115,000 plaintiffs, or about $742 bucks apiece. Which ain't much, but it is enough to buy more than 100 lunches at Subway, or to splurge and, with careful planning, jet to Paris for one fantastic meal.
