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Republican SNAP Proposals Threaten the Food Security of Millions of Workers and People Between Jobs
For millions of workers, their jobs don’t pay enough to feed their families and afford other basic needs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fills that gap: roughly 15.7 million workers, or about 10 percent of all workers, are in households that turned to SNAP to help put food on the table in the last year. Many workers participate in SNAP while they are working or while looking for work to supplement low or lost income.
Most SNAP participants who can work already do (see figure) — often in jobs that pay low wages, offer unreliable hours, and don’t provide benefits such as paid sick leave. However, Republican lawmakers and conservative think tanks have proposed expanding harsh and ineffective rules that condition food assistance on meeting a work requirement. These proposals would put more people, including many workers, at risk of hunger without increasing employment or earnings.
One existing rule — the three-month time limit — already restricts benefit receipt to three months out of every three years for adults under 55 who aren’t raising children in their home, unless they document that they are meeting a 20-hour-per-week work requirement or are otherwise exempt. Because the three-month time limit significantly increases red tape for states and families, people can lose benefits even if they are working but they can’t document enough hours. In other circumstances, people who shouldn’t be subject to the time limit (because of ill health, for example) — including workers temporarily between jobs — can still lose benefits if their state fails to screen them for an exemption or requires onerous paperwork that people can’t submit. Republican proposals would make more people subject to the time limit, taking food away from people living in areas with insufficient jobs, older adults up to age 65, parents of school-age children, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth who have aged out of foster care.
For millions of workers whose jobs don’t pay enough or whose jobs lack stable hours to provide for their families, SNAP is an essential support to close the gap. Most workers who participate in SNAP are in service, professional, transportation, administrative support, or sales occupations. In several occupations — including home health and personal care aides, school bus monitors, agricultural graders and sorters, and maids and housekeeping cleaners — more than 1 in 5 workers participate in SNAP.
SNAP’s program and benefit structure supports workers. Many workers participate in SNAP for part of the year and stop participating when they get better wages. SNAP’s benefit formula phases out benefits slowly as earnings rise and includes a 20 percent deduction for earned income to reflect work-related expenses. SNAP benefits can help smooth out volatile income and provide much-needed food assistance when workers’ hours are cut or they lose their jobs. About 40 states have adopted an option, known as broad based categorical eligibility (BBCE), to lift SNAP’s income limit modestly and phase down SNAP benefits more gradually for workers who earn somewhat more income over time, thereby avoiding a sudden end to food assistance. One of the Republican proposals would gut BBCE, creating a “benefit cliff,” and abruptly ending food assistance for millions of people in households who were able to modestly increase their earnings or build savings.
Finally, SNAP plays a critical role in supporting workers and their families during periods of unemployment. Workers with low-paying jobs experience significantly more instability in earnings and work hours than other workers, reflecting the nature of the labor market they participate in. Some of the most common occupations in the country, though vital to the overall economy, have low pay, unpredictable scheduling, and few benefits. In addition to income volatility, many low-paying jobs lack crucial supports such as paid sick leave and health insurance (let alone paid family and medical leave), which can cost workers their jobs when they get sick or must care for an ill family member. Workers with low-paying jobs are less likely than other workers to have access to unemployment insurance, especially Black, Latinx, and women workers.
Independent studies have repeatedly shown that SNAP’s work requirements do not increase employment or earnings. Misguided efforts to expand the scope of SNAP’s work requirements rest on the false assumptions that people who receive benefits do not work and must be compelled to do so — and on the view, contradicted repeatedly by research and real-world experience, that the paperwork laden requirements and under-resourced human service agencies can properly identify who is working and who should be exempt. These incorrect assumptions about people receiving SNAP are rooted in stereotypes based on race, gender, disability status, and class, and on an outdated understanding of disability that treats people as either completely unable to work or “able-bodied” with no work limitations and no periods of joblessness.
These harsh and unnecessary work requirements just cut people off from the food assistance they need to buy groceries. Policymakers should advance policies that support employment opportunities without increasing red tape and leaving people hungrier.
Additional resources from CBPP on SNAP and work can be found here: Resources on SNAP and Work | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities