{"id":3543,"date":"2016-01-04T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T14:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3543"},"modified":"2016-01-04T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T14:42:08","slug":"a-brief-observation-on-minimum-wage-earners-and-food-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/a-brief-observation-on-minimum-wage-earners-and-food-stamps.html","title":{"rendered":"A brief observation on minimum wage-earners and food stamps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/a>
from https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chrstphre\/5489717927<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Here\u2019s the context:<\/p>\n

I spent a fair bit of time writing on the issue of the working poor and the minimum wage back in April, e.g., \u201cWhen did the idea of the \u201cworking poor\u201d become a bad thing?<\/a>\u201d and \u201c\u201cThe [working] poor you will always have with you\u201d: more on minimum and \u201cliving\u201d wages<\/a>\u201d on the fact that proponents of a high minimum wage are losing sight of the fact that welfare benefits for the working poor were originally meant to promote work over welfare dependency with gradual phase-outs. \u00a0Fundamentally, I believe that meeting the Left\u2019s demand that the minimum wage be set high enough to support not just a single individual but entire families, would result\u00a0in far more people unable to find work of any kind \u2014 which, admittedly, to some on the Left is a feature, not a bug, as they\u2019d just extend welfare benefits more permanently and generously to these people. \u00a0(I also wrote about this, in \u201cMinimum wage and the dignity of work<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s an article from yesterday\u2019s Chicago Tribune<\/a>, \u201cReport: Taxpayers cover the costs of low wages.\u201d \u00a0The bulk of the article is a profile of three poor women: \u00a0a 61-year old grandmother supporting her (presumably adult but non-working) daughter and granddaughter with a $12.20\/hr job and a Section 8 housing voucher; a 29-year-old single mother of one earning $10.50\/hour and receiving food stamps and Medicaid; and a 28-year-old mother of three earning a hypothetical $10\/hr (that is, including tips that don\u2019t often arrive) and receiving $400 in food stamps.<\/p>\n

And the argument, which you\u2019ve likely see before, is that companies benefit from low wages but taxpayers foot the bill in the form of government spending for food stamps and other welfare benefits for the working poor.<\/p>\n

Authors of the NPA [National People\u2019s Action] report point out that while paying lower salaries benefits corporations, it penalizes taxpayers who have to offset the cost of living for workers. Typically, the authors say, those low-paid employees must turn to public assistance in the form of housing vouchers, food stamps, discounted day care or child care programs.<\/p>\n

According to the NPA study, 60 percent of the cost of public assistance in Illinois goes to families headed by someone who works. In addition, nearly 1 million people in Cook County live in poverty and either collect public assistance or qualify for it, the report shows. County taxpayers end up covering the cost of nearly $150 million in health care for the working poor. They pay millions more for child care and other expenses, Murray said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s the full report<\/a>, as found on the group\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is nothing new \u2014 except, I suppose, that now at the same time we\u2019ve got two parallel arguments being made by our politicians: we\u2019ve got organizations demanding\u00a0a minimum wage sufficient to eliminate daycare subsidies for the poor, and at the same time, we\u2019ve got other groups saying that daycare is fundamentally unaffordable by anyone, so that it needs to be provided by the federal government for everyone (not just the poor) on a free or heavily-subsidized basis.<\/p>\n

But what did strike me, the \u201cbrief observation\u201d that I had in mind when I started typing this up, is this: \u00a0the above-mentioned mother of three is eligible for up to $522\/month <\/a>in Earned Income Tax Credit, which can be paid out as additional amounts in her paycheck. \u00a0One hopes this already is the case. \u00a0For the mother of one, it\u2019s $281. \u00a0The grandmother may not be but\u00a0that\u2019s another story, if she\u2019s obliged to support an adult daughter.<\/p>\n

Is this, too, a \u201ctaxpayer subsidy of low-wage paying employers\u201d? \u00a0The NPA thinks so, at least to make their numbers more dramatic in their report. \u00a0But it doesn\u2019t ever seem to make its way into news reporting, presumably because of a recognition that the public at large doesn\u2019t think so. \u00a0It\u2019s either simply not known or understood by the reporters writing these articles, or because it\u2019s perceived of as coming through the \u201ctax system\u201d it\u2019s simply viewed differently, as something owed to low-income individuals just as much as high-income individuals owe money to the government.<\/p>\n

So my question is this: \u00a0what would the public conversation look like, and what would the effects be, both good and bad, if both of these benefits, the food stamps and the EITC, were replaced by an equivalent cash assistance benefit that phases out as income grows?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the context: I spent a fair bit of time writing on the issue of the working poor and the minimum wage back in April, e.g., \u201cWhen did the idea of the \u201cworking poor\u201d become a bad thing?\u201d and \u201c\u201cThe [working] poor you will always have with you\u201d: more on minimum and \u201cliving\u201d wages\u201d on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[241,240,48],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eitc","tag-food-stamps","tag-minimum-wage"],"yoast_head":"\nA brief observation on minimum wage-earners and food stamps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's the context: I spent a fair bit of time writing on the issue of the working poor and the minimum wage back in April, 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