The working poor are employable people who have found low-paying jobs and barely scrape out a living. By removing many forms of federal aid, the Reagan administration has locked the working poor into poverty. In saving a few dollars today, we are penalizing the next generation. (CS)

An empirical analysis of the effects of alternative income maintenance programs, The Survey of Economic Opportunity, was used to obtain estimates of the labor supply parameters required to assess the implications of these programs for hours of work of male family heads. Labor supply response to changes in the family heads' net wages and in family…

This report examines state earned income tax credits (EICs) as a means to assist working poor families to escape poverty. Specifically, the report notes that six states have their own EICs, expressed as a percentage of the federal EIC, with the advantages being that the credit is a reward for work, is a pro-family policy, is efficiently targeted,…

This paper addresses the role community colleges can play in moving the working poor toward economic independence. Since Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) was enacted in 1996, there have been many new job openings in the country. But, employment and earnings prospects for job seekers leaving the welfare system are dismal. TANF clients…

This paper reports on the state of welfare after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) passed by Congress in 1996. The National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) is a federally initiated study that explores the questions of what works best and for whom. NEWWS evaluated seven areas across the…

The purpose of the study is to begin a detailed investigation of the low-paid work force and to focus attention on the determinants of low-wage employment, by dissecting the various forces that contribute to the determination of wage levels for full-time full-year workers. The question is whether low-wage poverty can be eliminated by upgrading the…

This paper analyzes the role the community college plays as a bridge to opportunity for the working poor and economically disadvantaged. Because educating the disadvantaged is expensive and often under-funded--particularly in the area of basic or remedial education--many community colleges opt to focus on educating more advantaged students in…

The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness and understanding of the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Program. The Academic Senate holds the view that welfare reform that focuses on "work first" tends to push participants into below-subsistence-level jobs and eclipses an emphasis on long-term…

The study described in this paper used data from two national samples of families with children to describe the home environments in which welfare children are being raised and to identify the children's health, learning, and behavior problems. The study compared children whose families had received Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)…

In August, 1997, the California State Legislature created CalWORKs as California's version of federal welfare reform, known nationally as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Cal WORKs provides that each eligible adult recipient may receive up to 60 months of assistance during their lifetime. All adult recipients must…