Super-Sizing Welfare Costs: Low Wages at McDonald's, Burger King Cost Taxpayers Billions

Democracy Now
New research shows more than half of low-wage workers at fast-food restaurants rely on public assistance to survive -- a rate double that of the overall workforce. According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, low wages in the fast-food industry cost American taxpayers nearly $7 billion every year -- that's more than the entire annual budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A companion report by the National Employment Law Project found McDonald's alone costs Americans $1.2 billion annually by paying its workers insufficient wages. Last year the top 10 largest fast-food companies alone made more than $7.4 billion in profits.