Workfare

In the most basic sense, workfare refers to the practice of making recipients of public assistance work for their benefits, rather than receiving them as an in-kind grant. The practice of workfare has a long history both inside the United States and outside of the United States. A prime example of an early form of workfare was instituted by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which called for workhouses for the poor in England and Wales. In the United States, the discussion and debate on workfare arose in the mid-1990s during the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Under workfare in the United States, the recipient of public assistance is required to work for a nonprofit agency (included in this definition are governments at the city, county, and state level) if their caseworkers have decided that they are not ready for paid employment or if they are unable to obtain placement in a job or training program within a specified period of time.

This program has received critiques and commentary from both sides of the political spectrum. On the conservative end of the political spectrum, there is praise that the program requires women to take part in a productive activity, which stems from workfare reflecting the American values of individualism, the Protestant work ethic as well as current trends in society that show more than half of American mothers taking part in labor market activity. Although some will admit to the problematic nature of obtaining real training during these workfare placements, there is also the belief that workfare provides other benefits for the workers, such as encouraging good work habits and providing access to a letter of recommendation. This also provides a way for communities to complete needed projects without displacing existing staff. Praise is given to the deterrent effect provided by workfare by making public assistance a less attractive option than participation in the labor market, resulting in decreased participation levels of those who are not among the truly needy. On the liberal end of the political spectrum are charges that workfare is little above “slave labor” because the participants are [Page 925]working for sub-minimum wages and because the program results in women taking jobs that do not provide skills or mobility in an attempt to avoid participation in workfare. There is also a perception that workfare is a reflection of the stigmatization of women on public assistance—public assistance must be made a less attractive option to poor women with children because they will not look for employment unless they are forced to by the government.