Double-dipping: Low wage-paying companies force taxpayers to fund benefits, says report

More than half of the billions of dollars spent on state and federal government assistance programs each year goes to benefit working Americans because their salaries are too low to make ends meet.

A study published out of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California’s Berkley campus this week says 56 percent of the $226.8 billion used annually on assistance programs between 2009 and 2011 went to working families.

“When companies pay too little for workers to provide for their families, workers rely on public assistance programs to meet their basic needs,” Ken Jacobs, the chair of the labor center and co-author of report released this week, said in a statement. “This creates significant cost to the states.”

The researchers say that around $153 billion in taxpayer money is spent each year, on average, aiding families that otherwise depend on earned wages.

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