Dwindling tools to raise wages, By Eduardo Porter, December 10, 2013, New York Times: “Senator Ted Kennedy once called the minimum wage ‘one of the best’ tools for fighting poverty. But the fact is, the minimum wage’s anti-poverty powers have been declining steadily for decades. In the late 1960s, a full-time job at minimum wage could almost lift a family of four above the poverty line. By the late ’80s, it left them 40 percent below it. That is about where things stand today…”
Tag: Earned income tax credit (EITC)
Low-Wage Workers and Public Assistance Programs
- Fast-food workers cost taxpayers nearly $7 billion in welfare costs, By David Migoya, October 15, 2013, Denver Post: “Fast-food workers cost taxpayers nearly $7 billion in welfare costs each year, according to a study issued Tuesday by the University of California at Berkeley. That’s because the workers at restaurants such as Wendy’s and McDonald’s are forced onto the public dole from wages that are too low for them to get by, the study found. The study found that about 52 percent of fast-food workers receive some form of public assistance, compared with 25 percent of the general workforce. A similar study was also issued by the National Employment Law project…”
- Public assistance for fast-food workers costs taxpayers, reports say, By Diane Stafford, October 15, 2013, Kansas City Star: “Low-paying jobs in the fast-food industry exact a multibillion-dollar cost on U.S. taxpayers, according to two national reports released Tuesday. U.S. taxpayers pay about $7 billion a year to support Medicaid, food stamps and other public assistance programs for fast-food workers who earn poverty-level wages, a team of university researchers said in one of the reports…”
Earned Income Tax Credit – Michigan
Michigan Dems: Restore low-income tax break, By Alanna Durkin (AP), March 3, 2013, Lansing State Journal: “Lansing taxi driver and single father Terry Beasley uses the federal and state earned-income tax credit to supplement the $12,000 he brings home every year, pay off bills and buy new clothes for his son. ‘It’s going to mean I’m going to have a whole lot less money and be a lot poorer,’ he said. About 800,000 low-income Michigan families, who qualify for the state’s earned income tax credit like Beasley, will bring home less money this year due to a reduction in the state’s earned-income tax credit to 6 percent from 20 percent of the similar federal credit, part of sweeping tax changes Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed in 2011…”