The value of a full package of welfare benefits for a typical recipient in every state and the District of Columbia is greater than the poverty level in that state and more than a person could earn in many full-time jobs.

• In 40 states welfare pays more than an $8-an-hour job, and in 17 states more than a $10-an-hour job.

• In six states and the District of Columbia welfare pays more than a $12-an-hour job - or more than two and a half times the minimum wage.

• In nine states welfare pays more than the average first-year salary for a teacher, and in 29 states more than the average starting salary for a secretary.

• In the six most generous states, benefits exceed the entry-level salary for a computer programmer.

The total welfare package amounts to the pretax wage equivalent of more than $30,000 per year in three states - $36,400 in Hawaii, $32,200 in Alaska and $30,500 in Massachusetts.

Welfare advocacy groups often portray welfare as a series of frugal programs that barely provide subsistence help to the needy. But that conclusion is based on the faulty assumption that welfare recipients receive primarily only one form of public assistance, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Actually, at the federal, state and local levels of government, there are dozens of welfare assistance programs in addition to AFDC.

Thus, the choice of welfare over work is often a rational economic decision. Although in the long term an individual is better off in the labor force, moving from welfare to work is likely to lead to at least a short-term decline in income, and for some perhaps a permanent reduction in income. That may help explain why 68.6 percent of welfare recipients report that they are not actively seeking work.

Source: Michael Tanner, Stephen Moore and David Hartman, "The Work vs. Welfare Trade-off," Policy Analysis No. 140, September 19, 1995, Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001, (202) 842-0200.