Wal-Mart to HP Reap Worker Political Donations Through Charities

U.S. companies, forbidden to give money directly to political action committees, are taking advantage of controversial federal rules allowing them to ask employees to do it for them in exchange for matching charitable donations.

It’s legal and gives businesses from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Coca-Cola Co. to Hewlett-Packard Co. a way to fund their PACs, which direct money to political candidates. The matching contributions provide an incentive for employees, most of them managers, to contribute to the PAC.