# Contested concept: subsidy

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: criterion
- **Diagnosis**: The conflict over 'subsidy' masks a disagreement over who is responsible for the cost of worker survival: the employer (through wages) or the state (through social safety nets).
- **Canonical**: `/concept/subsidy` (data: `/concept/subsidy.json`)

## Senses in use
- **An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.** — used in 5 claim(s)
- **Social spending directed toward low-income individuals to alleviate poverty.** — used in 3 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [A $15 minimum wage would help eliminate the practice of using public subsidies to support low-wage 'race to the bottom' employment models i…](/claim/claim_2c460c30a6e3.md) _(sense: An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.)_
- [The allocation of public assistance to working families with very low incomes effectively serves as a subsidy for low-wage employers by off…](/claim/claim_2e3ebd053b42.md) _(sense: An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.)_
- [A significant portion of public assistance in the United States is allocated to working families who have very low incomes.](/claim/claim_3d68025b6d93.md) _(sense: Social spending directed toward low-income individuals to alleviate poverty.)_
- [Establishing decent pay levels would help end the practice of using public assistance to subsidize low-wage 'race to the bottom' employment…](/claim/claim_927cfe7f38ff.md) _(sense: An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.)_
- [Low-wage 'race to the bottom' employment models have increasingly characterized the human-resources practices of for-profit, nonprofit, and…](/claim/claim_a4f604a32928.md) _(sense: An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.)_
- [An increase in worker pay [such as through a higher minimum wage] leads to a corresponding decrease in the amount of means-tested public as…](/claim/claim_c0870f4b9f54.md) _(sense: Social spending directed toward low-income individuals to alleviate poverty.)_
- [Implementing a $15 statewide minimum wage in New York would significantly reduce the amount of taxpayer-funded public assistance that curre…](/claim/claim_ce7db15146fb.md) _(sense: An indirect payment to for-profit companies that allows them to maintain low wages because the state covers the workers' remaining survival costs.)_
- [In the United States, means-tested social spending is increasingly tied to employment status through programs such as the Earned Income Tax…](/claim/claim_e63f4d36fc2b.md) _(sense: Social spending directed toward low-income individuals to alleviate poverty.)_