Many people think that welfare helps unmotivated and uneducated individuals and only minorities. In fact, more than half of Americans have used or will use some type of welfare assistance in their lifetime. According to recent studies, 35.4% of the US population benefits from some sort of welfare program, for a total of 110,489,000 individuals. This leads to a total annual welfare expenditure of $131,900,000,000, not including food stamps and unemployment. The top three races using welfare are White recipients (38.8%), Black recipients 39.8%, and Hispanic recipients 15.7%. Another interesting fact about welfare is that in 39 US states welfare pays more than $8 an hour for a job. Including 6 states where welfare pays more than $12 an hour for a job. The saddest fact of all is the fact that there are 8 states where welfare pays more than the average worker's salary.