Fact Check: Work is the best way out of poverty
As a rationale for putting work requirements on childless adults who receive food benefits, one legislator said “Work is the best pathway out of poverty. Work requirements have proven to be effective, and people who can work should work."
Let’s just fact check these statements, shall we?
Work is the best pathway out of poverty
The 50% of workers earning less than median hourly wage in the United States ($17.02 in 2021) are barely getting by. Two adults working full time for $15 an hour live at 250% of Federal Poverty Limits for a family of three. From their take home pay, they spend
20% on childcare, (almost three times what is considered affordable)
29% on housing, (right on the edge of HUD’s definition of “cost burdened”) and
22% on food (using the FDA’s “moderate food budget”, they are still paying more than twice as much as the average for U.S families, 10.3%)
Working full-time is not a pathway out of poverty when half of all jobs pay barely-getting-by wages. Half of the workforce cannot “get better jobs” – it is mathematically impossible.
Work requirements have proven to be effective
If removing people from benefits is “effective”, then this statement is correct. For example, Texas had 12.5% of Medicaid members drop off the plan thanks to work requirements. Louisiana’s work requirements cut membership by only 2.8%.
Work requirements kick people off for two reasons: the monthly reporting system is a barrier and a person’s work hours change from month to month, not by his choice but by the employer. A 2021 study found SNAP work requirements had no impact on employment, which leads to the third statement . . .
People who can work should work
This is not so much a fact as an opinion, but it implies that punishment is needed to make more people work. Of all families receiving SNAP, 85% had at least one adult working. The remaining 15% could escape the work requirement for several different reasons. (Keep in mind that nearly two-thirds of all SNAP-enrolled people are too young, too old or too disabled to work.) People who can work are working, no nudge needed.
SNAP work requirements punish people for things beyond their control, such as how many work hours they get or how well the reporting system works. The United States has more hungry children than peer countries. Since work requirements do not increase work, the only apparent purpose they serve is to making food more scarce for the country’s most precious resource – its children.
P.S. In order for work to be a pathway out of poverty, all (or at least the majority of) jobs need to pay enough for a person to meet basic needs. This was the original intent of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act that created minimum wage.
