Executive Summary

• Highlights
• The Workforce Investment Act and Self-Sufficiency
• What is the Self-Sufficiency Standard?
• About this Guide
• Order a Hard Copy

The Workforce Investment Act and Self-Sufficiency

In 1998, the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) replaced the Job Training Partnership Act as the federal government’s primary workforce development program. WIA-funded programs serve both unemployed job seekers and employed adults seeking different or better employment.1 Clients can obtain a range of services including job search and career information, support services, and access to training at One-Stop Centers.

WIA establishes the set of activities that states and localities are required to provide with allocated funds including eligibility criteria, overarching goals, performance measures, and selection of service providers. At the same time, important provisions are left up to state and local workforce boards, giving boards flexibility to design program and policies tailored to their specific labor market and employment needs.

Title I and Title II of WIA and the federal regulations2 make several references to self-sufficiency. The most significant and most utilized Self-Sufficiency reference defines eligibility for intensive services.3 Federal regulations make clear that state or local workforce boards must set the criteria for determining whether employment leads to self-sufficiency. While many areas utilize the WIA established minimum threshold 4 a growing number of local boards have established higher standards than set by the federal law and have used them in a number of innovative programs and practices as reflected in this guide.

All states have access to a self-sufficiency standard or similar measure.5 In 2003, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) conducted a joint survey of over 100 local workforce boards to explore how self sufficiency standards were being utilized. The survey found that nearly half (46%) of responding Local Boards defined self-sufficiency higher than the federal default. Of those, more than one third (36%) were using the Self-Sufficiency Standard established through WOW’s Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project. 6

1 Section 106 of WIA 1998 states that one of the purposes of the law is to "increase the employment, retention, and earnings of participants, and increase occupational skill attainment by participants." (Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Title One, Subtitle B, Section 106)

2 20CFR 663.220 and 20CFR 663.230

3 Under WIA, One Stop clients have access to services on a sequential basis: core, intensive and training services. Intensive services are the bridge between the programs offered within the One Stop and the actual, hands-on training programs that can prepare workers for jobs. Under Sec. 134(d) (3) (A) (ii) workers in jobs not leading to self-sufficiency are eligible for intensive services. The law states that eligibility for intensive services includes those "who are employed, but who are determined by a one-stop operator to be in need of such intensive services in order to obtain or retain employment that allows for self-sufficiency."

4 CFR Title 20 Part 663.230 clarifies that State or Local Boards must define self-sufficiency: "State Boards or Local Boards must set the criteria for determining whether employment leads to self-sufficiency. At a minimum, such criteria must provide that self-sufficiency means employment that pays at least the lower living standard income level, as defined in WIA section 101(24). Self-sufficiency for a dislocated worker may be defined in relation to a percentage of a layoff wage."

5 In addition to the WOW Self-Sufficiency Standard described above, the Economic Policy Institute calculates similar, though less geographically and family-specific, cost of living budgets for all 50 states. In addition, some states have developed their own state-specific measures, using differing methodologies.

6 These findings are consistent with a survey conducted by the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (WAI) that found even stronger results: over 65% of Local Boards in 50 of the largest metropolitan areas adopted a self-sufficiency standard higher than the federal default.