COLUMBUS, Ohio – Each one of the nearly 34,000 fast-food workers in Ohio whose low wages allow them to qualify for government assistance programs costs taxpayers more than $8,000, according to a recent study.
According to a study by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center, released locally by Policy Matters Ohio, 45 percent of the 75,000 non-management fast-food workers in the state turn to at least one of several public benefit programs for their families at a cost of $291 million annually.
“Low wages, no benefits, and part-time status mean families of fast-food workers can’t get by without public safety nets,” Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters, said.
The $224 million doled out in the form of food stamps, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program account for $6,637 worth of benefits for each of the 33,750 frontline workers – such as cooks and counter help — and their families, according to calculations based on data in the report. Adding in the $67 million accounted for by workers who qualify for and take the federal Earned Income Tax Credit brings the total to $8,222 per worker per year, Hanauer said.
The corporations which own and operate the nation’s largest fast-food chains, including Dublin-based Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Yum Brands and Burger King Worldwide either did not respond to or refused to comment for a Reuters wire service story on this study and another that arrived at similar conclusions.
A report from the pro-labor National Employment Law Center cited in the Reuters story claims the 10 largest fast-food companies cost the U.S. taxpayers $3.8 billion a year.
There has been a move among fast-food workers and labor unions to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Frontline fast-food jobs pay an average $8.77 an hour and an estimated 87 percent of the workers get no employer-provided health insurance, the University of California report said.
The nationwide cost of the assistance to families of fast-food workers is nearly $7 billion per year, the study said. That includes $3.9 billion a year for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, $1.04 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (food stamps), and $1.95 billion in Earned Income Tax Credit payments.
In Ohio, 39 percent of the families were taking the Earned Income Tax Credit, 17 percent were receiving Medicaid benefits at an annual cost of $132 million, 13 percent were enrolled in CHIP ($48 million) and 21 percent were receiving food stamps ($40 million).
The study found one in five families in the U.S. with a fast-food worker has an income below the poverty line. The study estimates that 52 percent of families of frontline fast-food workers working at least 11 hours a week and at least 27 weeks a year were enrolled in public programs, compared with 25 percent of the general workforce.