Labor & Economic News Blog

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry

Fast Food, Poverty WagesFast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry This report estimates the public costs of low-wage jobs in the fast-food industry. Due to the combination of low wages, meager benefits, and often part-time hours, many of the families of fast-food workers must rely on taxpayer funded safety net programs to make ends meet. For this analysis we focus on jobs held by core, front-line fast-food workers, defined as non-managerial workers who work at least 10 hours per week for 27 or more weeks a year. The median wage for this workforce is $8.69 an hour. Only 13 percent of the jobs provide health benefits. We found that 52 percent of the families of core front-line fast-food workers are enrolled in one or more public safety-net programs at a cost of nearly $7 billion a year.

 



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