Americans are spending $153 billion a year to subsidize McDonald’s and Wal-Mart’s low wage workers

[Omaha Steve]

Protesters lobby for higher wages for fast food workers. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/15/we-are-spending-153-billion-a-year-to-subsidize-mcdonalds-and-walmarts-low-wage-workers/

By Ken Jacobs April 15 at 6:24 AM

Ken Jacobs is the Chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and co-author, with Jenifer MacGillvary and Ian Perry, of "The High Public Cost of Low Wages."


The low wages paid by businesses, including some of the largest and most profitable companies in the U.S. – like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart – are costing taxpayers nearly $153 billion a year.

After decades of wage cuts and health benefit rollbacks, more than half of all state and federal spending on public assistance programs goes to working families who need food stamps, Medicaid, or other support to meet basic needs. Let that sink in — American taxpayers are subsidizing people who work — most of them full-time (in some case more than full-time) because businesses do not pay a living wage.

Workers like Terrence Wise, a 35-year-old father who works part-time at McDonald’s and Burger King in Kansas City, Mo., and his fiancée Myosha Johnson, a home care worker, are among millions of families in the U.S. who work an average of 38 hours per week but still rely on public assistance. Wise is paid $8.50 an hour at his McDonald’s job and $9 an hour at Burger King. Johnson is paid just above $10 an hour, even after a decade in her field. Wise and Johnson together rely on $240 a month in food stamps to feed their three kids, a cost borne by taxpayers.

The problem of low wages and the accompanying public cost extends far beyond the fast-food industry. Forty-eight percent of home care workers rely on public assistance. In child care, it’s 46 percent. Among part-time college faculty—some of the most highly educated workers in the country—it’s 25 percent.

FULL story at link.

[marym625]

1. K&R! Big time!

[jen63]

2. K & R!!

[herding cats]

3. We pay so the big coporations don't have to.

It's the new American business model.

[okaawhatever]

4. I'm glad this is getting coverage in a large media outlet. That's rare. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

5. You know damn well the Mega Rich are

starting to look over their shoulders when the Washington Papers print something that is not pro Business. Got a feeling they see the same change Agent as many of us see,and her name is Hillary Clinton. She is not a Bill Clinton Clone. Been watching her transformation to a more progressive profile. And we can thank Sanders and Warren for this change. Our country is hungry for a FDR revival and Wall Street can see it coming and they are pissed because all the money in the world is not going to stop it. Case in point,just look at the Headlines on your so called liberal web pages,Hillary gets visit from GOP Congressional Committee Investigators. Bottom line,just more of the 1 %ers outrage,it is not going anywhere except Faux News.

[Calista241]

6. So, what's the solution here?

Somehow I doubt these companies could afford to spend $76b more per year on employee costs.