1/3rd Of Bank Tellers Need Public Assistance

While the spotlight has been on Wal-Mart and McDonald's workers the banking industry has largely gone unnoticed. Danielle Douglas over at the Washington Post reports, "Researchers say taxpayers are doling out nearly $900 million a year to supplement the wages of bank tellers, which amounts to a public subsidy for multibillion-dollar banks. The workers collect $105 million in food stamps, $250 million through the earned income tax credit and $534 million by way of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center."

Yet one more reason I've been shouting out a need to for raising the minimum wage. Political opponents and small businesses have been crying out how it will hurt them. I wish to point out these are not some small potato companies that have been exploiting taxpayer handouts in order to supplement their employees at taxpayers expense. A properly written piece of legislation could easily exclude small employers and those business owners whose rely on low-cost labor to get by. As is already being done with seasonal, agricultural and others under current law.