By Angelique Fullwood
A recent report released by a Florida State University professor reveals that Florida taxpayers spend $11.4 Billion each year in public assistance due to low wages.
Patrick L. Mason, professor of Economics at FSU released the report “The High Public Cost of Low Wage Employment” in early February after a mass mobilization of low-wage workers lobbied state representatives to increase the state minimum wage.
The study shows that 50 percent of the beneficiaries of the Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Free and National School Lunch Program (FRL) program are persons living in low-wage working families. These families also account for more than 40 percent of food stamp (SNAP) participants.
State Senator Dwight Bullard and Representative Victor Torres sponsored SB 6 and HB 109, respectively, which would increase the state minimum wage from $8.05 to $15.
These bills garnered support at the beginning of the 2016 legislative session when low-wage workers held a press conference at the Florida State Capital, lobbying for fairer wages and a union.
“We have teachers who are educated and should be paid more,” said Pavonne Scott, a childcare worker from Tampa who is a member of the Florida Fight for $15. “I know that the children are our future, but a lot of the people who are taking care of our children are making minimum wage, while corporations give themselves multimillion dollar bonuses.
According to the report, more than 30 percent of all working Floridians are low-wage earners making an average of $14,000 per year. The average low-wage worker in Florida earns $324 per week and works 32 hours per week. The majority of low-wage workers are women, 40 years old, with 12 to 13 years of education
“The cost of living is going up, but our wages aren’t,” Scott said. “Most of our parents have to work two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water.”
The report concludes that with better wages and benefits on the job, public assistance to economically vulnerable workers would decline and would reduce the welfare abuse of companies that subsidize corporate profitability at the expense of taxpayers.
“Raising the wages would make a difference,” Scott said. “We need this change so that we can have a better society, and a better environment.”
