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Chapter 1
Why Read This Report?
This report is aimed at state and local policymakers and practitioners who are concerned about improving the labor market prospects for low-wage workers and the well-being of their families — while, at the same time, addressing two bottom-line issues for employers: reducing job turnover and increasing workers’ skill levels. The report accomplishes this by identifying promising strategies to increase family income in both the short-term and the long-term — strategies that can also increase job retention and reduce employee turnover.
In the short term, family income can be raised by ensuring that low-wage workers and their families have easy access to the work supports provided by the government, such as child care subsidies, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), health insurance, and food stamps. Compelling research shows that income supplements for low-wage workers not only can increase job retention — which, from an employer’s perspective, reduces costly job turnover — but also can have positive effects on children and families.
Still, government work supports can take families only a short distance on the road to a better income. In the longer term, many will want and need to invest in the development of their job skills so that they can command a higher wage, find better jobs, and, in turn, raise their income to a level of self-sufficiency such that government work supports are no longer needed or available. This is the second area on which the report focuses: promising job retention and advancement strategies that respond to employers’ increasing demand for employees with higher-level jobs skills.
However, the basic finding motivating this report is that, for low-wage workers, access to work supports, job retention services, and career advancement opportunities is often extraordinarily — and unnecessarily — difficult. This, in turn, can prevent many low-wage workers from securing work supports or, indeed, from keeping their jobs, thereby leading to increased employee replacement costs for businesses. The problems of access can also thwart some workers from advancing to higher-wage work that would increase their income, improve family well-being, and render government assistance unnecessary.
Since the early 1990s, the number of low-wage workers has grown, and their circumstances and needs are now firmly on the national agenda. This report provides specific promising strategies being undertaken across the country to improve access to work supports and to job retention and career advancement services — for those who want to move forward an agenda for low-wage workers that can also advance the goals of both government and business. The report is organized as follows:
- Chapter 2 explains why policymakers should be concerned about low-income working families and provides an overview of the current policy and operational context.
- Chapters 3 through 5 describe promising state and local practices in improving access to work supports and employment retention and career advancement services, respectively.
- Chapter 6 presents state policy options that can be adopted to support the promising practices described in Chapters 3 through 5.
- Chapter 7 concludes the report by laying out guiding principles for improving service delivery to low-income working families and the roles to be fulfilled by partner organizations.
At the end of this report are two appendixes. Appendix A presents summaries of three organizations that exemplify the guiding principles outlined in Chapter 7. Appendix B lists all the programs described in the report and provides contact information for each.
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