Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom in the Low-Wage Labor Market

241 Pages·2010·1.54 MB·English

by  Jane L. Collins

BOTH HANDS TIED

JANE L. COLLINS AND VICTORIA MAYER
Both Hands Tied
WELFARE REFORM AND THE RACE TO THE
BOTTOM IN THE LOW-WAGE LABOR MARKET
/
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON
JANE L. COLLINS is the Evjue Bascom Professor of Community and
Environmental Sociology and Gender and Women’s Studies at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison and the author of Threads: Gender,
Labor & Power in the Global Apparel Industry, among other titles.
VICTORIA MAYER is assistant professor of sociology at Colby College.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-11405-7 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-11405-8 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-11406-4 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-11406-6 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collins, Jane Lou, 1954–
Both hands tied : welfare reform and the race to the bottom in the
low-wage labor market / Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-11405-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-11405-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-11406-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-11406-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Working poor—United States. 2. Poor—Employment—
United States. 3. Poor women—Employment—United States.
4. Public welfare—United States. I. Mayer, Victoria. II. Title.
hd8072.5.c656 2010
331.5'4—dc22
2009030879
a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
List of Illustrations / vi
Acknowledgments / vii
Preface / ix
1 Introduction: The Connection between
Welfare and Work / 1
2 Welfare Reform’s Context: The Growth of the
Low-Wage Service Sector / 26
3 Welfare Reform’s Content: Building Connections
between Work and Welfare / 55
4 Tying the First Hand: The Solitary Wage
Bargain / 83
5 Tying the Second Hand: Challenges to Economic
Citizenship / 114
CONTENTS 6 Both Hands Tied: The Race to the Bottom in the
Low-Wage Labor Market / 147
7 Conclusion: Untying the Hands / 159
Appendix A. Description of Interview Process / 165
Appendix B. Interview Protocol / 167
Appendix C. Economic Composition of Sample / 174
Appendix d. Industrial Composition of Milwaukee
and Racine / 175
Appendix e. Wisconsin Works (W-2)
Documents / 177
Notes / 179
References / 201
Index / 215
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGuRES
2.1. Unemployment rates in Milwaukee and Milwaukee Metropolitan Statis-
tical Area, 1990–2005 / 42
2.2. Unemployment rates in Racine and Racine Metropolitan Statistical Area,
1990–2005 / 43
2.3. Distribution of women in the study by type of job last held / 50
2.4. Income of women in the study by source, 1998–2003 / 51
2.5. Income of women in the study compared to poverty threshold, 1998–
2003 / 52
3.1. The W-2 employment ladder / 64
3.2. Milwaukee County caseload and unemployment rate, 1998–2005 / 74
3.3. Caseload and W-2 contract allocations, 1998–2006 / 75
d.1. Composition of economy, Milwaukee and Racine Counties, 2000 / 175
e.1. Wisconsin Works (W-2) participation agreement / 177
e.2. Wisconsin Works (W-2) employability plan / 178
TABLES
c.1. Comparison of women in the study to all women in lower tier of
Wisconsin Works / 174
d.1. Ten largest private sector employers, Milwaukee, 1970 / 176
d.2. Ten largest private sector employers, Milwaukee, 2004 / 176
A gallery of photos follows page 82.
ACkNOwLEDGMENTS
We conducted the initial research for this book, a study entitled “Mother’s
Family Networks and Livelihood Strategies,” with the support of the Child
Support Demonstration Evaluation, Phase III, administered by Professors
Maria Cancian and Daniel Meyer at the University of Wisconsin’s Institute
for Research on Poverty and funded by the Wisconsin Department of Work-
force Development. We thank Maria and Dan for their support and guidance
and Maria especially for her continuing interest in and engagement with the
project as it grew beyond its initial goals and scope. Victoria Mayer received
additional research support through a grant from the OΩce of the Assistant
Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, administered by Thomas Kaplan, associate director of Programs and
Management and senior scientist at the Institute for Research on Poverty. The
Women’s Studies Research Center and the Graduate School at the University
of Wisconsin provided resources for Jane Collins in the later phases of the
research.
Many individuals at the Institute for Research on Poverty provided invalu-
able assistance in the day-to-day management of the project. We are grateful
to Pat Brown and Steve Cook for their help with sample selection and access to
quantitative data, Emma Caspar for her project management skills, Bill Wam-
bach for budget administration, Allison Hales Espeseth and Margaret Darby
Townsend for their oversight of human subjects research protocols, and Robin
Snell for many kinds of help. Thomas Kaplan provided essential introductions
to the network of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) agencies in
Milwaukee and valuable insight into the history of welfare reform in Wiscon-
sin. David Pate Jr., then a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Research
on Poverty and now assistant professor of social work at the University of
Wisconsin–Milwaukee, helped us design our methods, from the initial letter
we sent to potential interview subjects to the interview experience itself. His
moral support and intellectual feedback enriched the project immensely.
vii
viii ACkNOwLEDGMENTS
Two superbly dedicated and gifted research assistants helped with the
interviews: Nicole Breazeale, a doctoral student in sociology, and Angela
Cunningham, a student in the master of social work program, both at UW–
Madison. Nicole and Angela participated in the time-consuming work of
scheduling interviews and later transcribing them; they also conducted or
participated in many of the interviews, proving themselves to be deeply en-
gaged, empathetic listeners who o∏ered women optimal conditions for the
telling of their stories.
A number of researchers and activists talked with us about this work as it
developed, including Andrea Robles, Pamela Fendt, Laura Dresser, and Mar-
cus White. Heidi Herschede provided an excellent “sociological orientation”
to Milwaukee. Micaela di Leonardo, Maria Cancian, Je∏ Maskovsky, William
Jones, Chad Goldberg, Myra Marx Ferree, and an anonymous University of
Chicago Press reviewer provided insightful and engaged critique of various
versions of the manuscript. Micaela, in particular, pushed us to make the book
accessible to a broader audience and provided brilliant advice and editing as
we did so. Members of local TANF agencies took time from demanding sched-
ules to discuss their work and graciously accepted our presence while they
interacted with program participants.
The women at the heart of our study (the names reported here are all pseud-
onyms) were bold, thoughtful, witty, generous, and kind. They believed in the
importance of having their stories heard and sought to tell them as clearly and
comprehensively as possible. They inspired us in so many ways.
Victoria thanks her husband, Todd Miller, and her son, Isaiah Miller, for
the joy they brought that sustained her through this work. And she thanks her
parents, Joan and Paul Mayer, and her friends from Madison, who, though too
numerous to name, were vital in helping her balance the needs of family and
work while conducting this research. Jane thanks her son, Robert Painter, for
his support and good humor and her sister Bonnie Landry and friends
Nancy Kaiser, Aimee Dechter, Patricia Hodson, Alda Blanco, Michaeline
Crichlow, Timothy Moermond, and Thomas Schweigert for their many acts
of kindness.
PREFACE
In February 2009, the New York Times published two articles charting trends
in U.S. employment and income security. On February 6, it announced that
women, holding more than 49 percent of the nation’s jobs, were poised to
surpass men in the labor force for the first time in American history. The ar-
ticle reported that men’s loss of good manufacturing jobs and women’s greater
employment in areas less sensitive to downturn left more women serving as
breadwinners for their families. “Women may be safer in their jobs,” the author
noted, “but tend to find it harder to support a family. . . . The jobs women
have—and are supporting their families with—are not necessarily as good.”1
On February 2, the paper reported that despite soaring unemployment and
the worst economic crisis in decades, eighteen states had cut their welfare rolls
in 2008. Indeed, the number of people receiving cash assistance in the nation
was at the lowest level in more than forty years.2 Seemingly unrelated, these
news stories reference trends that are integrally connected in the lives of poor
working families, contributing to the increasing diΩculty women face in com-
bining work and family responsibilities at the low end of the labor market.
Their dilemma is the subject of this book.
Americans tend to think of work and welfare as opposites, as the poles of a
spectrum of diligence or virtue. At one end is the industrious wage earner, the
epitome of citizenship since the 1840s. At the other are imagined to be slothful
and shiftless “welfare queens” and others who refuse to work. This over-
wrought distinction obscures several facts. The first is that “welfare” programs,
writ broadly, benefit a wide swath of the population. Imagine life without,
for example, social security, workers’ compensation, unemployment insur-
ance, tax deductions for interest on homes, or federally insured mortgages
and student loans. Second, welfare writ small—those means-tested assistance
programs directed toward the poor—has always been a safety net designed
to mitigate labor market and family failures. Since welfare “reform” in 1996,
however, the federal government has introduced new rules and structured
ix