A report from the University of California's Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education released Monday found that 73 percent of people receiving public assistance are members of working families.
The report found that the U.S. government spends more than $150 billion a year providing anti-poverty programs, including Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps, and earned-income tax credit, to working families.
The New York Times explains that taxpayers are not only supporting the poor, but are also providing "a huge subsidy for employers of low-wage workers, from giants like McDonald’s and Walmart to mom-and-pop businesses."
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While some states and corporations have raised the minimum wage to help low-wage earners, most of the country has yet to follow suit — and taxpayers are filling in the gap, the report notes. Unemployment may be declining, but the poor are still struggling to make ends meet.
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