According to a study just released by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) one in five American workers don’t earn enough to make ends meet. The study, entitled, “Bridging the Gaps: A Picture of How Work Supports Work in Ten States” looks at the various work supports in ten states to see how the basics such as health and child care, food and housing are met and how the gap is filled for workers with low wages and insufficient benefits.

The study concludes that work support systems, at least in the ten states studied, do a pretty good job bridging the gap between what the poorest workers make and what they need to survive, but that there are serious shortcomings for merely low wage workers who are caught in the middle. I didn’t see a lot of surprises here, but it’s good to keep in mind for sure. There’s a nice, short write-up on the study by one of the authors over at AlterNet.

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