Five years after enduring a deep recession, the Illinois economy is once again generating jobs. But the current economic recovery poses a paradox: Where economic expansion has historically been accompanied by falling poverty rates, state expenditures on public benefits programs to help working families make ends meet have been growing. Because many of the jobs being created pay wages too low to support families, year-round workers are turning to public-support programs to make ends meet. This public support for year-round workers and their families is the hidden cost of low-wage
work in Illinois.

In this report, we measure these hidden public costs of low-wage work, and assess their implications for workers, employers, taxpayers and policy makers in Illinois. Drawing on an annual survey of workers and published public-benefits expense data, we assess the share of public benefits payments spent on “year-round working families” (families supported by a worker employed at least 50 weeks per year) for the years 2001-2004. We consider expenditures for six programs: The Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, the Child Care Assistance Program, Food Stamps, KidCare (the state’s
supplemental child health insurance program), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.