Fast-Food Giants Make Billions While Their Workers Use Billions In Welfare Benefits

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http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/fast-food-giants-make-billions-while-workers-welfare



Wages at America’s fast-food chains are so low that millions of employees have been receiving at least $7 billion a year in welfare benefits between 2007 and 2011, according to a new study by University of California and University of Illinois labor economists.

“Our research estimates the public cost of low wages—low wage jobs in the fast food industry,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the U.C. Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. “We specifically focus on the core, frontline fast-food workforce. These are people you are most likely to see when you walk into a fast-food restaurant.”

“The median wage for these workers is $8.65 an hour,” Jacobs said Tuesday. “Only 13 percent have health benefits through their employer. The combination of low wages, meager benefits and often part-time hours means that many of the families of fast-food workers must rely on taxpayer-funded safety net programs to make ends meet.”

But the billions in taxpayer subsidies is only half of the story, the labor economists said, because a companion report, also released Tuesday, found that the 10 largest fast-food chains made more than $15 billion in profits and shareholder give-backs in 2012—revealing the industry could afford to pay living wages.