The report highlights the high cost of low wages to taxpayers, with poverty-level wages costing $152.8 billion each year in public support for working families. The median American worker's real hourly wages have only increased by 5% since 1979, while the wages of the bottom decile of earners have decreased by 5%. The decline in employer-provided health insurance has also contributed to the problem, with the share of non-elderly Americans receiving insurance from an employer falling from 67% in 2003 to 58.4% in 2013. The report estimates that nearly three-quarters of enrollees in America's major public support programs are members of working families, and taxpayers bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work in America. This report is the first to examine the cost to the 50 states of public assistance programs for working families, focusing on their utilization of Medicaid and CHIP, as well as their enrollment in basic household income assistance programs.
