Low-wage piece of works cost Illino...

Low-wage piece of works cost Illinois taxpayers more than $2 billion a year within public assistance programs that workers cast to make ends meet, finds a recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Urban Economic progress to maturity

There are 475000 working families receiving public assistance annually, and 37 percent of all public benefits spending in Illinois goe to support them, according to the report.

Two-thirds of workers supporting families that learn public aid earn $10 an hour or les it fix

More than 79 percent of the working families who work year-round and commit to memory public assistance are supported by dint of a full-time worker who works 35 hours or more a week, and more than 92 percent of the dual- worker households getting help are supported according to more than 70 hours of weekly profession

The research relies on data from the U Bureau of Labor Statistics present Population Survey, which provides state demographic and profession information, and it uses conduct administrative data from six aid programs in the state. They include Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, cheer stamps, Temporary Assistance to indigent families, the state child health insurance program, and subsidized child care programs.

"A parcel of these benefits programs were intended to be for family who were out of work," said Nik Theodore, co-author of the meditation and director of the center "Increasingly, because of depressed wages, full- time, year-round workers and their families are having to deflect to public assistance."

The investigation points to the need for policy makers to make piece of work quality and wages a priority in order to have more effective economic unfolding policy, he said, adding they also ne to examine hidden subsidy outlays

The report was released as debate continues above the Chicago City Council's lately passed "big box" living wage ordinance, which Mayor Daley may veto this month The ordinance requires retail stores with more than 90000 square feet of space, possessed by companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales, to pay their employee at least $10 an hour and $3 an hour in benefits at 2010.

The thought found health services, retail trade and arts and entertainment are the largest employer of workers who receive public benefits.

fknowles@suntimes.com

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