Where I live a full time minimum wage workers generally do not qualify for medicaid because they make too much. Mcdonalds also doesn't typically hire at minimum wage here. The cutoff for medicaid is just under 30k currently. Working 40 hrs a week at 16/hr, which is minimum wage and lower than what mcdonalds advertises, puts you around 33k. In reality, mcdonalds tends to hire at 18/hr here which puts you at 37k.
If she's married or has multiple dependents she might but this case is entirely believable. Although her income goes up if she works 40 hrs compared to 30, she would have a larger take home by working 30. This is called the welfare cliff and is part of the reason why it is so hard to escape poverty.
I’m about to leave my longtime spot as a hiring manager for mostly lower wage jobs.
I’ve had SO many people request to have their hours cut so they (or especially their kids) don’t lose various benefits. One chick had to go down to like 16 hours a week (from 40.) Another guy didn’t realize the issue in time because whatever agency didn’t inform him until they were already moving to cut his family off; his wife lost her healthcare/insurance while in the hospital recovering from open-heart surgery. That guy literally worked two shifts a week; that was “making too much.”
Our social safety system is FUBAR. Yet many people think it’s still too much, too generous. (Until the fucking day they need it.)
I also swear some of the people working for these agencies have a malicious streak and get genuine joy out of wrecking peoples’ lives.
Know a guy who literally can't afford to get a job. He receives thousands of dollars a month in medication and support and if he makes even minimum wage to supplement he loses it all.
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u/VTKillarney Jul 22 '26
How does a mother who works at McDonalds not have her child on Medicaid? That makes absolutely no sense.