Join us for IWPR’s 2026 Power+ Summit, The Power Grid: Driving Gender Equity Forward, taking place September 28–29 in Detroit, MI.
Together, we will spark bold ideas, share breakthroughs, and shape the future of gender equity.
With the states facing a July 1, 1997, deadline to submit their welfare plans to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, many state officials are considering how they will meet the challenges of moving large numbers of welfare recipients into the work force. This newsletter describes one central component of state efforts to move welfare recipients into the workforce: workfare. Workfare is one of several policy issues relation to the low-wage labor market and job creation/ availability issues under the new welfare law. In this newsletter, we describe some features of workfare programs and present research findings that suggest some implications workfare may have for the low-wage labor market and the well-being of welfare recipients.