Apr 19, 2015 2 min read

In some debates over the social safety net and whether America should be more or less generous with those receiving public assistance, it’s sometimes assumed individuals who are receiving food stamps or Medicaid can’t work, won’t work or are going about the job hunt at a decidedly unhurried pace.

However, a study just published by the University of California’s Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education came back with a finding that could well be surprising for some and shift the terms of the debate – nearly three-quarters of those who are receiving public assistance are punching a clock, and sometimes working close to 40 hours per week or more.

Their ranks include people in professions that are woven into the fabric of everyday life – bank tellers, fast-food employees, department store workers, people who care for our children and the elderly, even instructors at colleges and universities.

Ken Jacobs, the chairman of the Berkeley Center for Labor and Research, wrote in The Washington Post “when 73 percent of people who benefit from major public assistance programs live in a working family, our economy isn’t operating the way it should – or could.”

How much Americans should be paid and how much the state and federal government should spend on public assistance are arguments will surely rage on into the 2016 election year and beyond. But the fact that many of the poor are indeed working is a fact that can’t be left out of this discussion.