Job satisfaction has received little attention in studies of the working poor. Given the direction of the 1996 reforms to U.S. welfare policy, this is a significant oversight. While we better understand the rewards and hardships associated with work after welfare, empirical studies on the job attitudes of TANF leavers are lacking and parallel the sparse treatment of low-wage work in the extensive research available on job satisfaction. Taking into consideration these gaps in the literature, this study attempts to create an intersection between two otherwise well developed research areas—job satisfaction and welfare reform.

METHODS

I use 1999 survey data collected on 514 TANF leavers randomly selected as part of the Illinois Study of Former TANF Clients. Means tests, ANOVA, contingency methods and polytomous logistic regression techniques are used to analyze an ordinal job satisfaction measure in relation to the personal and employment characteristics of former welfare recipients. Special attention is given to the influence of welfare dependence and TANF work requirements on post-TANF job satisfaction.

RESULTS

At bivariate and multivariate levels, I find significant evidence that wages, work hours, professional status, having employer sponsored health care and being in good health have positive effects on leaver job satisfaction. Contrary to assumptions about welfare recipients, I find no evidence of a negative relationship between TANF dependence and post-TANF job satisfaction. In fact, time on welfare positively effects post-TANF job satisfaction.

IMPLICATIONS

A popular belief that fueled the original welfare reform debate was that dependency on the government erodes positive attitudes about work. A key finding in this study suggests this assertion lacks empirical credibility: Leavers with the longest TANF tenures are more likely to report higher job satisfaction levels.

Some lawmakers want to elevate the hours of work activity required by individuals for benefit reception and raise the expectations of the states to engage people in such activities. The clear objective is to force poor people into consistent attachment to the mainstream job market, but the underlying assumption is that they don't like working any more than they are required. The results presented in this study are counterfactual to this perspective, as working full-time or at least 30 hours per week had a significant positive impact on leaver job satisfaction. It seems that when having enough work hours is not an issue, low-income workers can gain more satisfaction from a job. Thus, reauthorization policy choices would be more appropriately directed at promoting the availability of full-time employment opportunities.

The finding that better pay is related to greater job satisfaction deserves attention. Noting the inability of work alone to protect TANF leavers against poverty, some have endorsed the idea of raising the national minimum wage in the process of reauthorizing welfare reform legislation. Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit would clearly benefit low-income workers in this respect as well. This study suggests that such policy decisions could also improve the subjective feelings held by TANF leavers about their jobs.