'Twas the night before Christmas when Wal-Mart told the world it decided to settle 63 lawsuits to the tune of as much as $640 million; most of those lawsuits alleged that Wal-Mart "underpaid its employees."

So what prompted the usually greedy Grinch to give more than half a billion dollars to its employees? It must've been a passing wind of Christmas Cheer, right? No.

The Wall Street Journal says one reason Wal-Mart paid out $640 million is...