States may be allowed to put welfare recipients in less than minimum wage jobs

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States may be allowed to put welfare recipients in low-paying jobs

Jonathan Peterson - Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON _ The Bush administration is moving to allow states to place welfare recipients in jobs that pay less than minimum wage -- a reversal of federal policy that is sparking ire among public employee unions and advocates for the poor.

The White House idea is that such cut-rate jobs could provide work experience for many thousands of welfare recipients who have not moved into the labor force. Such work could take the form of community service, including tasks such as cleaning up parks and helping out in offices.

The Bush administration has concluded that this "supervised work experience" does not amount to a real-world job and should not be governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the national minimum wage at $5.15 an hour, officials said Tuesday. Some states have higher minimums.

"It's intended to give them some work experience and give them an understanding of work," said Andrew Bush, a welfare official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "That is not something that should be subject to minimum wage laws."

The proposal is part of the administration's push to impose much stricter work rules on welfare recipients, as Congress re-examines the sweeping welfare overhaul of 1996. The law expires later this year, and political leaders are starting to debate how to change it, with initial disputes emerging on the subject of work rules that states would be required to follow.

"You need to have a program that's very well-focused, and you need to have your clients very focused -- and that focus needs to be on employment," said Bush, who heads the Office of Family Assistance.

The welfare rolls, which peaked at 5 million families in 1994, have dropped by more than 50 percent.

Today, one in three welfare recipients either holds a job, is searching for one or is pursuing vocational education. The Bush administration wants to increase that figure significantly, to seven in 10. But welfare recipients who seek to enter the work force face a weaker economy than in the booming mid- and late-1990s. In addition, many of the most readily employable welfare recipients found jobs during those robust years, in many cases leaving behind those with fewer job skills.

One way states could achieve the big gains sought by the White House would be to expand community service jobs for welfare recipients, creating opportunities for some of the hardest to place.

"What you're really trying to do is inculcate regular work habits and expectations," said Jason Turner, who formerly ran New York City's jobs program for welfare recipients.

But whether such jobs should pay less than minimum wage, as the Bush administration would allow, is stirring a debate over fair treatment of society's least able workers. Already, the White House proposal is starting a backlash among those who claim that sub-minimum wage welfare jobs inevitably displace real jobs held by low-income workers. More broadly, critics argue, sub-minimum wage jobs threaten to pull down wage levels and working conditions for other workers who toil at the bottom rungs of the wage ladder.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002

Answers

During the last recession, we had a program at the state level program where the gov't paid 1/2 and the employer paid 1/2 of the salary for welfare clients.

The result was that places like McDonald's and K-Mart quit hiring students and only hired welfare clients because they didn't have to pay them as much. Since it was the recession, there were 50 applicants for every job, so when the six month welfare stipend ran out, the company just let the employee go for some trivial reason.

The effect was cutting 3/4 of the jobs normally done by students in the college town that I was in.

Talk about unfair labor practices. . . . . . . . .

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002


But, but but--aren't these welfare recipients receiving welfare? Of course they are? Why should they mind doing a little work in return for it, especially if they can gain some experience to help them find better jobs?

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002

In Ohio, welfare reform gives able-bodied workers two years on the rolls. There is some talk to cutting this down to one year. The present policy has done more to discourage lifers on the dole more so than making them "work" and extending their benefits, which other states have done.

I agree that welfare clients should work, but I'm against the gov't getting involved with salaries for the post above: too much potential for abuse on the part of businesses.

Ohio is also addressing the larger problem: there is a real movement afoot to hold the schools accountable for teaching basic skills. With luck, very soon there won't be any high schools students allowed to graduate who can't read. There will always be high school dropouts, but they won't be on the welfare rolls here if they are able-bodied.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002


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