Massive Subsidies for Fast Food Industry through Benefits to Low Wage Employees, Report Finds

A new report put out by the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center outlines the amount of welfare benefits going to low-wage fast-food workers. The study, "Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry," was released Tuesday. It found that more than half of the families of front-line fast-food workers, earning a median wage of just $8.69 per hour, are using major public programs, such as food stamps or Medicaid, compared to 25 percent of the workforce as a whole. The cost of public assistance to families of workers in the fast-food industry is nearly $7 billion per year, effectively acting as a public subsidy to the low wage employers.

A report author and Boston fast food worker justice campaigners are interviewed about their views on the situation in the following audio report.