Workforce Innovations 2004 Conference

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• Workforce Innovations 2004 Conference
• San Antonio, Texas
• WORK ADVANCEMENT
• SUPPORT CENTERS
• A Demonstration Project for
• Low-Income Families

16 East 34th Street, New York, NY Phone (212)
532-3200 475 14th Street, Oakland, CA Phone
[phone]
July 19, 2004
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Brief MDRC Overview

• Non-profit, non-partisan research firm created in
  1974 by six federal agencies and the Ford
  Foundation
• Mission To learn what works to improve the
  well-being of low-income people.
• Projects in over 300 communities in most states
• Combination of public and foundation funding for
  demonstrations

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Why A Focus on Low Wage Workers? Labor Market
Reality

• The labor market is projected to produce more
  low-wage jobs in the coming years than high-end
  jobs. In 2002,
  25 percent of the nations workforce earned less
  than 9.00 per hour.
• Many low-wage workers lose their jobs in the
  first year at notable cost to employers and
  many who retain their jobs do not move up, even
  over time.
• Many low-wage jobs offer few opportunities for
  advancement, and a majority do not provide
  medical insurance.
• Many high-growth industries with better-paying
  jobs are unable to fill job openings.

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Policy Context 1Retention and Advancement
Services

• Workforce development and welfare policymakers
  and administrators have begun to focus on
  programs for job retention and career
  advancement.
• Most are in the early stages of development few
  work directly with employers.
• Enrollment and retention rates are very low.
• Welfare, not workforce development agencies, are
  often in the lead.
• Little is known about effective retention and
  advancement strategies.

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Policy Context 2 Work Supports

• Since the early 1990s, the federal government and
  some states have created or expanded a range
  of financial and non-financial work supports that
  can fundamentally improve the income calculus of
  low-wage work.
• Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit
• Subsidized child care
• Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program
  (CHIP)
• Food Stamps
• Monthly income supplements for working welfare
  recipients

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How the Full Package of Work Supports Can Make A
Difference (Ohio)
Annual Gross Income of Single Parent with Two
Children
Working Full-time, Full-year at 6.50 per hour in
Ohio
Child Care Subsidy
Welfare
Federal Poverty Level-2003 (15,260)
EITC
Earnings
Food Stamps
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Not Working
Working
Working Earnings and EITC
Working
Welfare
Earnings Only
With all Supports
This chart does not include Medicaid or
CHIP. Only one is eligible for the child care
subsidy.
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Take-Up (Participation) Rates

• Now, far more people who are eligible for the
  work supports have no relationship to the welfare
  system, yet many supports are still administered
  through welfare agencies.
• Take-up rates for most work supports among
  low-wage workers are below 50, and, for the full
  package of supports, no more than 30.
• Recent research shows that income supports can
  have positive impacts
• Increase rate of job retention and reduce job
  turnover
• Reduce poverty
• Reduce domestic abuse
• Stabilize marriage among two-parent households
• Improved the behavior and schooling outcomes
  among
  elementary-aged children

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BOTTOMLINE PROBLEM

• There is no institution with the mission or
  statutory responsibility for working with
  employers and low-wage workers to ensure that the
  workers have easy access to job retention and
  advancement services particularly into
  high-growth sectors and the full package of
  work supports.

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Work Advancement Support Centers

• The Vision Work Advancement and Support
  Centers will be a single location at which
  low-wage workers could have easy, user-friendly
  access to the services and supports they need.
  Each center will offer
• Retention and advancement services such as
  further schooling or training, including OJT and
  other employer-based strategies, to help workers
  stay employed and advance in the workplace
• Easy access to the full package of work supports
  and other work-related assistance, such as
  financial counseling and free tax-filing
  assistance

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Goals of WASC Demonstration (contd.)

• 1. Labor market
• To reduce relatively high rate of job turnover
  among low-wage workers, and associated costs to
  employers
• To raise the skill level of low-wage workers in
  order to be more productive and improve prospects
  for raising their wages
• 2. Service delivery To develop
  retention/advancement services and simplified
  access to work supports into a single system
• To develop and operate different models for
  retention and advancement services
• To simplify work support application and
  recertification processes for low-wage workers

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Goals of WASC Demonstration (contd.)

• 3. Social well-being
• To increase income of low-wage workers and their
  families
• To reduce poverty and improve child and family
  well-being
• 4. Institutional To build the capacity of the
  workforce and welfare systems to reflect new
  labor market realities
• To build the capacity of One-Stops to provide job
  retention and advancement services
  to low-wage workers, including appropriate hours
  of operation
• To use One-Stops as the access point for work
  supports for workers
• 5. Knowledge-development to identify what works
  and doesnt work in job retention/advancement.

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Program Development Retention and Advancement

• Objective To develop both employer-focused and
  worker-focused incentives for retention and
  advancement
• Employer-focused development activities
• Focus groups with medium-sized and small
  employers in each site in-person meetings with
  3-4 large employers in each site
• Meeting with Workforce Investment Board and
  affirmative vote in each site
• Investigating the potential for
• identifying low-wage workers by working with
  employers who hire a large number of entry-level
  workers
• developing OJT-based model for advancement

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Program DevelopmentRetention and Advancement
(contd.)

• Worker-focused activities
• Focus groups with low-wage workers at each site
• Investigating potential for portable or
  vouchered OJTs
• Also investigating potential for advancement
  activities through community colleges and other
  skills training providers
• Note Plowing new ground in all development work

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Program Development Work Supports

• Objective To simplify to the maximum degree
  possible the eligibility, application,
  documentation, and recertification processes
• Specifics
• Interest of U.S. Department of Agriculture (Food
  Stamp QC waiver) and U.S. Department of Health
  and Human Services
• Tough to do in states that have not moved far in
  this direction
• access not just a function of simplification,
  but also of staff attitudes and error
  rate-related pressure
• Necessary involvement of States in the process
  not only local decision

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Site Selection

• Site selection criteria
• Strong local capacity and leadership
• Strong actual or potential partnership between
  workforce development and welfare agencies
• Commitment among local policymakers at the site
  to
• serve low-wage workers and adjust hours of
  operations
• dedicate WIA and TANF staff to the WASC unit
• provide resources for retention and advancement
  services (State and site)
• work with MDRC to simplify work supports (State
  and site)
• provide guaranteed access to child care (for
  experimental group)
• adjust WIA performance standards (State, site,
  and DOL)

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Site Selection (contd.)

• Sufficient numbers of low-wage workers (for
  sample size requirements)
• Local or regional foundation interest
• Site selection process five to eight sites
• Learning sites (Fall 2003)
• Dayton Job Center (One-Stop), Montgomery County,
  Ohio
• Chula Vista One-Stop, San Diego County,
  California
• Second group of sites (Fall 2004)
• Current candidates in Connecticut, Illinois,
  Minnesota, Texas, Washington

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Time Frame for Planning and Implementation

• Dayton and San Diego
• Oct. 2003 August 2004 program development
• Sept. 2004 Dec. 2004 pilot program operations
• Jan. 2005 June 2006 random assignment of
  1,600 low-wage workers
• July 2006 June 2008 follow-up
• Second Group of Sites
• Same schedule except lags by six to eight months

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Current Funders

• U.S. Departments of Labor
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Ford Foundation
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• James Irvine Foundation
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation

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• For more information, see MDRCs website at
• www.mdrc.org
• or contact
• John Wallace [phone], ext. 230,
  John.Wallace_at_mdrc.org
• Frieda Molina [phone], ext. 228,
  Frieda.Molina_at_mdrc.org
• Craig Howard [phone], ext. 238,
  Craig.Howard_at_mdrc.org

Central Office 16 East 34th Street, New York,
NY Phone [phone]
Regional Office 475 14th Street, Oakland,
CA Phone [phone]