[1] Many countries around the world have adopted workfare (sometimes implemented as "work-first" policies) to reduce poverty among able-bodied adults; however, their approaches to execution vary.
Workfare was first introduced by civil rights leader James Charles Evers in 1968; however, it was popularized by Richard Nixon in a televised speech August 1969.
Four types of active labor market policies are incentive reinforcement, employment assistance, maintaining occupation, and human (social) capital investment.
Most commonly, it means getting unemployed people into paid work, reducing or eliminating welfare payments to them and creating an income that generates taxes.
The history of workfare in the United States dates back to before the American Revolution, during which land grants and military pensions were distributed sub-nationally and based on means-testing.
[7] In the early days of the United States, most Americans were deeply connected to the Protestant religion that favored literacy and hard work.
[7] Poorhouses and workhouses existed as a main method of poor relief through the 19th century, particularly growing in popularity as immigration increased in the United States and leading to the narrative that poverty equates to laziness.
This stereotype claimed that black mothers supposedly refused to get jobs, had numerous children, and lived exclusively off of taxpayer dollars.
[9] In 1996, President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (also known as welfare reform), which created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), shortened welfare stays, and mandated intensive job training and work requirements for individuals in need of assistance.
Supplemented by welfare reform and the 1994 Crime Bill, he argues that workfare has shrunk (via stricter restrictions) and prisonfare has expanded, ultimately locking the same vulnerable population in a vicious cycle in which low wage work, decreased benefits, and low social mobility lead to increased crime and punishment.
Typically, people of color have struggled entering the workforce due to narratives related to high crime and low-skilled levels.
[12] A male-breadwinner model assumes that men participate in the labor market and women complete domestic and caregiving tasks unpaid.
For example, in some states, work-first policies may not consider the childcare responsibilities of women receiving benefits when requiring them to participate in workfare.
[16] Single mothers are 33% more likely than married parents to be in poverty in the United States also in part due to the stagnant minimum wage[12] and gender pay gap.