When you couple “five kids” that you get increasing benefits for with five baby daddies that you get maybe some child support from, then you get a formula for generational welfare. There is no incentive to do the hard thing and work to improve skills and find jobs. Of course if every company had to pay a “living wage”, all of this goes away.
If every worker contributed value in excess of a "living wage", then companies would have no problem paying a "living wage" to every worker.