Here’s the lesson from the National Bureau of Economic Research’s new study on the wages on large retailers: Work hard and you’ll be okay. The Wall Street Journal reports, “According to the research, Wal-Mart cashiers are paid slightly less than Starbucks baristas, an average $8.48 an hour versus $8.80 an hour, but the discount retailer’s store managers make more than double the coffee maker’s store managers. A Starbucks store manager makes an average $44,632 yearly salary, compared with $92,462 at Wal-Mart, while a Starbucks district manager makes an average $75,775 a year, according to an analysis of data from career website Glassdoor.com.” The study set out to find out what kind of wages large retailers provide since manufacturing jobs with middle-class incomes are on the decline. It found places like Walmart pays better wages than the mom-and-pop stores. That statistic is a big-box-store-sized pill for the anti-Walmart crowd. More…