Labor Force Participation among the Economically Disadvantaged. Background Paper No. 22.

Existing research evidence on the ability of several kinds of public policy used to increase labor force attachment among the disadvantaged indicates that (1) policies for reform of the U.S. welfare system do not substantially help the problem; (2) increasing child support payments would have essentially no effects on the work effort and earnings of their recipients, who are predominantly female heads of households; (3) policies concerning work and training programs for the disadvantaged, including those requiring welfare recipients to work, are directed most toward disadvantaged women and do not benefit substantial numbers of disadvantaged men; (4) programs for the subsidization of wage rates and earnings that have been studied have not had the desired effect because employers have tended not to participate in them; and (5) if women's child care expenses were reduced 10 percent weekly due to government subsidization, the employment rate of married women should increase by about 3 to 4 percent, representing a large increase in the employment rate of women in the United States. The paper recommends the following: (1) place more emphasis on assistance to disadvantaged men; (2) expand and strengthen job training programs for males and focus additional Job Training Partnership Act resources on the most disadvantaged males; (3) strengthen the training opportunities in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Unemployed Parent program, which affects males and which will be mandated in all states by 1990 under the provisions of the Family Support Act of 1988; and (4) strengthen the training opportunities for men receiving benefits in the Food Stamp Program, the only universal transfer program in the United States. (32 references) (CML)