In my previous article I showed, using the living wages calculator created by MIT, the hourly wages full time workers in Beaufort County would need in order to provide for themselves and their families. For example, a living wage for a single adult living alone would be about $10 an hour while a single adult with a child would require about twice that amount. However, these living expenses far exceed the $7.25 minimum wage in North Carolina (which is the lowest minimum wage allowed by federal law). This means that many full time workers in our state, especially those with families who depend on them, cannot make ends meet on their salaries alone. Instead, these families are forced to turn to federal aid programs, like welfare, in order to survive.

No one benefits from this system more than large corporations and fast-food restaurants that rely on minimum-wage and low-wage workers. Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the employer to pay their employees a livable wage, that is, one that allows them to provide for the basic needs of themselves and their families so that they can continue working. However, big corporations have figured out how to exploit the welfare system to dramatically increase their profits. By paying their employees such low wages that they must depend on federal aid they are essentially subsidizing their employee’s living expenses with tax dollars. In other words, those corporations let the taxpayers help pay their workers and yet the company keeps all of the profits. For example, a 2014 report published by Americans for Tax Fairness estimated that federal aid for Wal-Mart employees cost American taxpayers over $6 billion annually, and over $230 million in North Carolina alone.

When it comes to capitalizing on tax dollars to subsidize employees’ living expenses, the fast-food industry is another one of the worst offenders. A 2013 report published by the University of California Berkeley estimated that the federal aid required by fast-food employees alone costs the American taxpayers nearly $7 billion annually. While commonly held stereotypes suggest that the average fast-food line worker is a teenager, the reality is that adults with children make up a larger percentage of these workers than teenagers do. Over half of all fast-food line workers in the United States depend on federal aid for themselves and their families, which is more than double the national average for workers in general. These numbers hold true in North Carolina where an estimated 54 percent of all fast-food workers rely on federal aid for their basic living expenses, costing taxpayers here over a quarter of a billion dollars a year.

While popular stereotypes suggest that poor people often take advantage of federal aid programs, causing a huge financial burden on taxpayers, the reality is that corporations like Wal-Mart and fast-food restaurants are, by far, the biggest exploiters of these programs. It is time for North Carolina lawmakers to stop demonizing poor and working-class people and require the corporations exploiting our tax dollars to pay their fair share. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is a realistic demand that would allow hard working North Carolinians to provide for their families without relying on federal aid while preventing large corporations and fast-food restaurants from exploiting public funds for private profits.

Ryne Beddard received a BA in Religion from the University of Mount Olive and will begin his MA in Religious Studies at the University of Denver in the fall.