Originally Posted by islandofapples
If she married her boyfriend (he has a manual labor job that pays about double minimum wage), his income was high enough that it would disqualify her for medicaid and food stamps... but it wasn't high enough for them to actually pay for health care! And the employer didn't offer any sort of affordable option for them to pay into.

The employer does not have to pay market rate for labor because much of the costs of living are already subsidized by welfare.