Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages
Source: by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams
Published on Monday, April 13, 2015
Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs.
In fact, U.S. taxpayers pay roughly $153 billion each year to supplement employers who refuse to pay a livable wage, according to report published Monday by the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor.
U.S. taxpayers "bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work in America," said report authors Ken Jacobs, Ian Perry, and Jenifer MacGillvary.
According to the report, The High Public Cost of Low Wages (pdf), 73 percent of those enrolled in the country's major public support programs are members of working families. The Berkeley study examined state spending for Medicaid/Childrens Health Insurance Program and Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), and federal spending for those programs as well as food stamps (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/13/report-us-taxpayers-bear-hidden-cost-poverty-wages
Skittles
(152,964 posts)meanwhile, the Walton heirs have what percentage of the wealth in America?
HOW F***ED UP IS THAT
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)not the biggest offender its most companies, hell even Publix which pays decently and is considered one of the best stores to work for doesnt pay a living wage to alot of its employees.
To be honest though I see atm two solutions, one is we make it illegal again for the companies to buy off the politicians which in the long term would help alot of us with wages the other option is the one the French used awhile ago which atm is looking pretty dang good imo.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)hibbing
(10,076 posts)American "capitalism" at its best, you can see it all through our economy.
Peace
Martak Sarno
(77 posts)Forget the American Dream. It's been replaced by the Corporate Dream.
Their ideal Dream?
Having laborers work for them 60 to 80 hours per week for no pay, no benefits, no healthcare, no vaction (paid or otherwise), certainly no pension or retirement provisions and the Corporate Rights to the children of said laborers for mandatory work at the corporation while keeping all profits for themselves.
Maybe a new Magna Carta in a few dozen decades will come about.