Publication
- November 30, 2016
- COWS
- Laura Dresser, Hannah Halbert, and Stephen Herzenberg.
Implementation of the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is well underway. This process creates unprecedented opportunity to adopt policies and practices that boost job quality. Connecting workers with the best quality job possible serves job seekers better. More stable work means higher income, longer job tenure, and better predictability for managing the tensions between work and life. But beyond that, WIOA policies for job quality help protect public investments in training by ensuring that those investments are not simply lost in a revolving door of turnover. Policies that focus on better quality jobs help make WIOA resources a reward for employers who are already treating their workers with greater care, rather than subsidizing low-road competitors who may waste the investment. A new report produced by COWS, the Keystone Research Center in Pennsylvania, and Policy Matters Ohio, identifies three WIOA quality standards that can target public training investment where it will have stronger returns.
For the many Marylanders who are struggling to make ends meet the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a vital resource. New time limits on food assistance threaten the food security of the thousands of Marylanders who rely on this resource. One important policy lever the state can use to help these families to get ahead is to maximize the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T), a federal program that provides funds to states to support workforce training programs for food assistance recipients. SNAP E&T provides an excellent opportunity to help people receiving food assistance get the skills and credentials they need to get good-paying jobs. It also ensures that working-age adults without dependents don’t lose their food assistance due to harsh federal time limits while they’re building skills and seeking employment, and it can bring funding that expands high-quality workforce training programs.
Following recent changes to model best practices from other states, Maryland is on track to have one of the strongest SNAP E&T programs in the country, though there is still room to make it more effective and help more people get well-paying jobs. By creating additional partnerships with community organizations, the state’s SNAP E&T program could enroll more people and take advantage of additional federal funds.
The number of Mississippi-based middle-skill jobs—those that require some training or education beyond high school but not a four-year degree—has grown in recent years and continues to grow. These skilled positions offer better benefits and pay opportunities for Mississippi workers in a state where 44 percent of working families earn incomes of less than $47,100 per year for a family of four. For these families, affording even basic necessities can be a struggle, particularly for households of color and female-led households who typically earn even less.
Increasing the workforce competitiveness of Mississippi’s working poor and placing them on pathways to middle-skill employment can change families’ economic situations for the better. Yet for many, these jobs, salaries, and benefits remain out of reach due to lack of basic education and technical skills necessary to be competitive job applicants and meet employer training requirements.
Workforce development programs, like Mississippi Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (MI-BEST), can bridge the gap. Skills training programs, like MI-BEST, provide opportunity to the working poor and serve as a bridge between potential employees and employers, providing adults with the skills and experience necessary to secure the best potential outcomes for their careers and futures.
As labor markets continue to rebound from the recession, the need for workforce training will grow as the need for middle-skill workers grows. However, matching the demand for workforce training to fill the middle-skills gap will require investments in programs like MI-BEST. Implementing and braiding funding sources to sustain workforce training will help increase quality employment opportunities for the working poor and build a strong Mississippi economy.
In response to the federal Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), most states are now in the latter stages of developing federally required plans and policies for operating their systems of workforce development under WIOA. This process creates an unprecedented opportunity to build into each state’s plan concrete ideas for using state and local workforce policy and practice to boost job quality. By developing new policies that help local boards connect workers to the best possible jobs, and supporting employers – individually and in partnerships – with efforts to improve jobs, WIOA implementation can create a “high road in workforce development.” It can make workforce systems an enduring force for better job quality.
In this brief, we propose three concrete disbursement policies that allow for more effective and focused use of WIOA resources, by ensuring that employer partners are the best possible fit for job seekers in the system. Many states or local areas already have some language supporting job quality – for example, seeking to target scarce training dollars to occupations that meet self-sufficiency wage standards (i.e., pay enough to support a family without public assistance). As this indicates, the goal of promoting the highest possible job quality for workers helped by the system is uncontroversial. The next logical step is to make this commitment more concrete and direct investments in ways that help secure the job quality outcomes on which there is strong consensus.