Wal-Mart Watch: More on Wal-Mart's welfare: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s employee wages and benefits policies cost California taxpayers $86 million annually to provide health care and other public assistance to the retailer's underpaid workers, according to a new study. . . UC Berkeley's analysis, released Monday, is based on the premise that Wal-Mart's paltry pay scale forces the retailer's workers to supplement their incomes with Medicaid, food stamps and other taxpayer-backed assistance programs at an unusually high rate. The study estimated Wal-Mart employs roughly 44,000 California workers who make an average of $9.70 per hour - 31 percent below the $14.01-per-hour average of other large retailers with at least 1,000 employees. The study calculated Wal-Mart's wages using 2001 payroll figures disclosed in a sex discrimination lawsuit against the retailer. Another reason we need political leaders who will help pave the high road.