By now you’ve probably heard about the arson at the Kimberly-Clark warehouse. A person was arrested, and in their statement they said something that deserves more than a passing headline: “All you have to do is pay us enough to live.”
That’s not a threat. That’s a plea. And the numbers behind it are worth sitting with.
In fiscal year 2025, Kimberly-Clark posted a net profit of $2.02 billion on revenue of $17.22 billion (source: Bullfincher). They employ approximately 36,000 workers (source: Bullfincher). These are the people making sure Huggies diapers, Kleenex, and Scott paper towels make it from the factory floor to the shelf in your home. They are not incidental to that $2.02 billion. They are that $2.02 billion.
So let’s talk about what it would actually cost to take care of them.
If Kimberly-Clark redistributed just 20% of its annual profit equally among all 36,000 workers, each person would receive $11,222. The company would still pocket over $1.6 billion.
Here’s where it gets real: a $11,222 raise is a 2% raise if you’re already earning $561,100 a year. For a warehouse worker making $40,000, which is generous for the sector, that same amount is a 28% raise. The dollar figure is identical. What changes is whose life it actually changes.
Run the numbers up the scale:
- 40% of profit shared: $22,444 per worker. Company keeps $1.2 billion.
- 60% of profit shared: $33,667 per worker. Company keeps $808 million.
- 80% of profit shared: $44,889 per worker. Company keeps $404 million.
At every single threshold, Kimberly-Clark remains a massively profitable company. This is not a zero-sum ask. Workers getting paid enough to live and shareholders getting a return are not mutually exclusive, they only become mutually exclusive when the people at the top decide that labor costs are a problem to be minimized rather than an obligation to be honored.
Nobody is asking for a handout. These workers are asking to be compensated in proportion to the value they generate. When someone burns something down and their explanation is simply “pay us enough to live,” the correct response isn’t to shake your head at the arson. It’s to ask why they felt that was the only option left.
Kimberly-Clark had $2.02 billion in profit last year. They had the answer the whole time.
