Workfare Workers
Thousands of welfare recipients are required to "work off" their welfare grants and even their food stamps. They are assigned to work in state and local agencies or for non-profits, but are not considered "employees" under the law and are therefore exempt from nearly all workplace rights and benefits.
Background. In 1935, during the Great Depression, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the nation's first federal welfare program. At that time, 88 percent of welfare recipients received assistance because the father of the family had died. Because the nation had a surplus of workers and a shortage of work, keeping widows at home allowed mothers to care for their children and also kept these women from competing with men in the job market. Public work programs for men, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), were also created to combat unemployment. The welfare program became Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which remained the federal government's primary program for poor mothers and children until 1996.
The 1996 welfare-reform law weakened previously existing safety-net programs: With strict work requirements and time limits tied to receipt of benefits, reform effectively eroded the previously existing social safety net for people unable to work or to find work. While the reforms were intended to incentivize single mothers to find work, they ended up leaving many individuals and families with no safety net to catch them in the event of loss of employment, resulting in a pronounced problem during periods of extended unemployment.
Demographics. "Workfare" is currently a major component of the welfare-to-work programs in New York, California, Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Colorado. According to the New York City Human Resource Administration website, more than 12,000 people in New York City are engaged in workfare in October 2010.
Wages and Hours. Each state Work Experience Program (WEP) is different. In New York City, WEP and Community Service program participants receive a cash benefit check. The city says that participants receive the minimum wage, but that figure is calculated by taking the sum of the value of their monthly cash grant, rental assistance and food stamps and dividing it by the hours worked. For many, this amounts to less that $100 every two weeks.
Health and Safety. WEP worksites are not exempt from OSHA, but workfare workers are not entitled to workers' compensation coverage for injuries suffered on the job.
Benefits. WEP participants receive Medicaid. Participants working for the state government or non-profits receive no unemployment benefits, nor do they receive any other work-related benefits such as Social Security payments.
Legal Context. According to a 1997 policy brief published by the US Department of Labor, workfare participants engaged in certain programs are not considered employees. These include those engaged in training programs. Where a public agency is the worksite for the state, if the employee is a workfare participant, the state can include all of the individual's cash assistance as well as any food stamps received as wages for purposes of meeting the minimum wage. Participants may also be required to "work off" the value of their food stamps. (Click here for the full DOL letter that explains welfare recipients are protected under minumum wage and overtime.)
Projected Growth. The state of New York recently reminded all counties and New York City that they can require workfare for people who are receiving food stamps only, potentially exposing another 1.3 million people to the workfare system in New York City alone.
Euline's Story
I am the mother of five children who are all grown. I have been on and off public assistance throughout my adult life. When I got on public assistance, I thought I could get training to be able to get a better paying job. But even though the City's public assistance agency, called the Human Resources Administration, claims they offer training, they do not offer it; you have to fight for every opportunity you get.
Instead, I do workfare, which in New York City is called Work Experience Program, or WEP. This means that in order to receive food stamps and some housing assistance, I have to go to a work assignment three days a week and attend work preparation classes called "Back to Work" two days per week. I get no training, and no chance of a real, paying job at the agency where I am doing WEP. I have done WEP assignments at the Board of Education and the Department of Aging.
My WEP supervisor doesn't pay me, [and] doesn't contribute into my Social Security account or for unemployment benefits. I am not covered by any workplace laws except health and safety laws. They count up my monthly welfare and food stamps grant and count that towards minimum wage for me. I get a check for $75 every two weeks. I am never at a WEP assignment long enough to develop relationships so that people there can be a reference for me for a job.
New York is very aggressive in its treatment of WEP workers. One time I got my assignment mixed up and went to work preparation instead of my WEP assignment, and I was "sanctioned," or punished, for doing so.
Right now, I am not on a WEP assignment because I was hired to work with developmentally disabled people in a group home. But that is an on-call position not a regular nine-to-five job. The position only calls me in occasionally, and I am having trouble making ends meet. My employment history is in child care and in home health care. I expect that I will be dropped from any benefits soon. The goal of the program is not to get people out of poverty, but just to slash the caseload.
Workfare or WEP is required of anyone considered employable whether you have a barrier to employment or not. Over 14,000 people in New York City are doing WEP in 2010. Even though you are expected to look for and find a job, the barriers you have to employment are not addressed. Across the country other welfare systems have used NYC as a model and also force people to do WEP.
