Work Requirements Don't Work
Work Requirements Don't Work
We need to design programs around data and science, not judgement or shame.
Work requirements have reared their misguided head once again. Like trickle down economics, work requirements become a topic that politicians push for every few years. Also like trickle down economics, work requirements are an idea that has been proven to create issues, not solve them.
Work requirements were first enacted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. Politicians believed they were creating a better solution that would create more self-supporting Americans and therefore fewer people dependent on “handouts”.
The thought being that if people had to work to get their benefits it would be like the old proverb: Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
As Clinton said himself “The best anti-poverty program is still a job”
To arrive at that conclusion requires a few erroneous thoughts coalescing as seemingly sound logic.
Jobs pay enough to cover the bills
People enjoy getting government assistance and won’t be driven to support themselves
Everyone else’s situation is the same as your own
America has a living wage problem. A living wage is exactly what it sounds like, the wage that someone would have to make in order to cover the cost of living where they live.
In 2023, the national average living wage for a family of four (2 adults, 2 children) is $25 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, meaning that even if both parents worked full time minimum wage jobs, they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills. Even working the equivalent of three full time minimum wage jobs still wouldn’t cover the bills.
The federal minimum wage has not changed since 2009. That is an extremely long time given constant inflation which in turn means the minimum wage continues to have less buying power with each passing year.
While several states in the south and southeast use the federal minimum wage, most other states have set a higher minimum wage. And yet, not a single state in the entire US has reached a level where their minimum wage is high enough to be a living wage even for a single adult.
That is the most fundamental problem with the work requirement. Those who need assistance are told they need a job right now to keep that assistance. But they will end up working jobs that pay so little that they will never get themselves out of poverty.
The data from programs like TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which have work requirements shows these results:
Increases in employment was modest and then decreased over time
Stable employment among recipients with work requirements was the exception not the majority
Most people subject to work requirements remained poor and some became poorer
Those results included the people who were most capable of being able to work.
The data gets worse when looking at people who have barriers to work such as physical or mental health conditions or family challenges. Not surprisingly, the percentage of people needing assistance who face these barriers is a much higher percentage than when looking at the population as a whole. Their condition is exactly why they need assistance.
Without work requirements 73% of this group did not find work. With work requirements 66% of this group still did not find work. That is a significant portion of people in need who can lose assistance all together when there is a work requirement attached to their benefits.
There is still another section of the population that suffers even worse from work requirements: children. Especially young children, which make up over half of the children whose parents receive benefits.
The types of jobs available to parents in this situation are:
low paying
can have unpredictable hours that change every week and include mandatory overtime
require long commutes (due to cost of housing vs where jobs are located)
have little opportunity for advancement
do not offer paid leave.
This creates a situation of having the parent not able to spend enough time or even a predictable amount of time with their kid. It also saddles the parents with the fear that if they take a day off of work to care for their sick child, they may lose their job and then lose their assistance benefits.
Results from studies of children in this situation have shown a decline in young children’s cognitive and social-emotional test scores. This can be attributed to the fact that due to the low pay, parents can’t afford daycare or other child support so they are stuck trying to manage caring for their child and holding down a job with long, and unpredictable, hours.
These children are not getting the attention they need. They’re missing out on the reading and play time that is so crucial for early childhood development. Parents in these situations are more likely than an average parent not on assistance to report that their child has behavioral issues.
The results of a program can’t be determined simply by the generation using that program, but by how the program shapes future generations and how it improves or worsens the overall situation in America.
Work requirement programs are failing current generations and future generations simultaneously.
All of the data isn’t bad however, there is one area that has shown to be more successful and a starting place for how to design welfare programs going forward.
Instead of requiring someone to go get a job in order to get their benefits, they are required to participate in training and education programs.
These programs increase the recipients skills, allowing them to eventually get better paying jobs that also have paid leave, healthcare, and all of the aspects they need to take care of their family without any additional assistance.
If the goal is to eventually get most Americans off of financial assistance then we need to think about national changes outside of welfare programs alone.
A higher minimum wage to ensure it is closer to a living wage. The more people who are able to support themselves through any work they can find reduces how many Americans need to apply for assistance.
Federally mandated and funded paid parental leave. Children under 2 years of age need the most care and attention from their parents. The better care those children receive, the better they will do in life and the better prepared they will be to support themselves in adulthood.
Other nations have paid parental leave plans that provide up to the full first year of a new child. The results are very positive.
Training and education programs for all Americans. This would solve multiple issues:
Businesses that can’t find enough qualified workers for their higher skill jobs
Workers displaced by technology making their career obsolete
Groups of Americans who are at a pay disadvantage
Universal Preschool. Children who have access to quality preschool perform better in school and have higher success after school. Preschool also provides a period of time that parents aren’t directly caring for their children and can use that time to work or train.
Any approach by the government to improve lives and provide support should be grounded in data, science and practical application to ensure that the programs are efficient, low cost, and highly successful.
Americans want to provide for themselves. They want to pull their own weight. Some simply need a little help to get to that point. We, as a nation, need to make sure the help they get is the help they need.
If you want to explore living wages in America deeper on your own, MIT made a calculator that lets you choose any county or metropolitan area in any state to see what the living wage would be for a variety of family sizes from a single adult living alone to two working adults with three children.
https://livingwage.mit.edu/