The Labor Revival : ‘Attention Must Be Paid.’ After 25 years of political irrelevance, the American worker is gaining a voice on the national stage. : THE WORKING POOR : Losing by the Rules

This week, Congress returns to the seemingly endless welfare-reform debate. Amid the many partisan and ideological battles over welfare there is--supposedly--one sacred piece of common ground: the moral, social and economic value of work. While the work ethic continues to be much talked about, however, it is increasingly a principle we honor in the breach.

That is most apparent when we consider the plight of the working poor. We have few policies to improve the lot of Americans who work and yet have incomes below the poverty line, and even fewer designed to lessen the number of people who meet this fate. Because they often make just enough to be ineligible for means-tested programs, these “deserving” poor, ironically, often receive the least assistance.

Poor working Americans and their problems are also totally absent from the current welfare discussion. Being ignored in this policy debate does not, however, mean they will be unaffected. On the contrary, the working poor will be among the hardest-hit casualties of the welfare wars. The welfare legislation now being considered in Congress dramatically cuts back the few programs that help low-income workers, and sets up a competition between the working poor and those still poorer over a dwindling pool of resources.

The working poor get shortchanged by policy-makers--and the public--in part because they don’t fit into our mental “map” of social class. Most of us imagine that society consists of those in poverty, on the one hand, and the employed, on the other--”poor” and “unemployed” are considered synonymous. The working poor have fallen between the intellectual cracks, landing in a conceptual limbo. The truth is, middle-class and upper-middle-class America actually thinks of the working poor as an oxymoron--we don’t believe they exist.

The result: Instead of compassion and respect, the working poor meet with ignorance and neglect. This is evident in focus-group discussions with white-collar voters. At first, they offer positive associations to the phrase “working poor.” But it soon becomes clear that, for them, this is just a concept, not a reality.

For starters, many middle-class people just refuse to believe that adults work full time at minimum wage-compensation levels. One person insisted, “Hardly anybody in this country supports themselves solely on a minimum wage. Nobody stays at $5 an hour for the rest of their lives.” Many also substantially overestimate the minimum wage: In one focus group, a person guessed it is $5.50 an hour, but another countered, “No, it’s not that low.” Actually, it is $4.35.

One small businessman confessed, “I have no dealings with people in that category. If I pay under $45,000, nobody will come work for me. I don’t know of anybody who could. That’s unlivable.”

As much as society wants to ignore it, however, the problem of poverty among working Americans is real--and growing. Consider these figures from a recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

* The poverty rate among families with children headed by an employed adult has risen by 50% since 1977. Looking at married couples, the increase is nearly as great.

* 7.4 million poor people live in a household where at least one person worked full time through the entire year.

What’s more, such figures considerably understate the real scope of the problem, since only those who meet the government definition of poverty are included. Millions more are just a little bit above the poverty line--not technically poor, but working awfully hard for awfully little, and close enough to poverty to live in fear of it much of the time.

Overall, tens of millions of working Americans and their children are barely getting by, and their number is growing. They do “play by the rules,” but the economic game has changed and is leaving them behind. In addition to violating our most basic conceptions of fairness--that America is wealthy enough to ensure that people who work full time are not poor--this is a tremendous social and economic waste.

Today, public policy is caught between two competing impulses. On the one hand, we say those who work are more morally deserving than those who go on welfare. On the other, we means-test programs to ensure the most needy are helped first, with the perverse result that the non-working poor get more help. It is poor workers who get squeezed in this vice.

We need to stop thinking in the false dichotomy of poor vs. employed, and acknowledge that our economy, left to itself, is going to generate millions and millions of jobs that do not allow people to maintain a family at a decent standard of living. In some cases, even two jobs are not enough. This is the result of technological shifts and the globalization of the economy, and will not change any time soon. If we want America to continue to be a middle-class nation, we will have to adopt policies that provide substantial and continuing support to workers--a major departure in U.S. social policy.

There are, broadly speaking, two ways to do this. We can have government provide things to people that employers do not, or we can legally require employers to increase wages and benefits to a level where working people are not poor. Depending on the area--health care, child care, wages, retirement benefits--one or the other will be the better approach. Overall, a mix of both types of policies makes sense--employers should meet minimal standards, but the realities of global trade dictate that government must take on a lot of this burden. Unfortunately, conservatives and much of the business community have usually successfully mobilized against both tacks.

And now Congress is headed in the opposite direction, contemplating legislation that further tilts the playing field against the working poor. Despite their alleged preference for work over welfare dependency, the GOP’s welfare-reform plan and related deficit-reduction measures will together have devastating consequences for the working poor.

The worst provision is the substantial cut they are hoping to make in the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, the one major program targeted specifically for the working poor. This refundable tax credit helps many of the working poor stay in the work force--without it, they would be forced to go on welfare. Incredibly, this will actually mean a tax increase on some of the poorest taxpayers--in part to pay for tax cuts for the affluent.

Major cuts are also contemplated in virtually every program that serves poor people--including child-care assistance, food stamps and other nutrition programs, Medicaid and training programs. While the bulk of these benefits often go to women and children on Aid for Families With Dependent Children, they also provide help to some working-poor families. Block-granting these programs will also disproportionately hurt the working poor, as inflexible federal formulas force states to cut benefits during recessions--precisely when marginally employed people often turn to the government for help.

What have the deserving poor done to deserve such ill treatment? Their first mistake was becoming poor in a way that cannot be blamed on government. This ensures their cause will continue to be unfashionable in these conservative times. With their poverty a result of the marketplace, this Congress finds the working poor extremely inconvenient.

The real problem, however, is the continued blindness on the part of middle-class Americans regarding the working poor. Without that, conservatives’ assault on the living standards of the working poor would be politically unthinkable. Those Americans who have been more fortunate must acknowledge the harsh economic conditions that their fellow citizens increasingly face.

Three decades ago, Michael Harrington’s “The Other America” revealed the existence of an “invisible poor” living amid plenty. He was writing of geographic pockets of poverty, in Appalachia and urban ghettos, that the middle class literally did not know existed. Today, everyone knows about that kind of poverty--many see it daily on the streets of large cities. But we have now created a newly invisible poor, who ironically are far closer to us--physically and culturally.

The working poor should be made visible for the same reason we prefer not to see them, that under slightly different circumstances any one of us--our brother, our sister, our mother, ourselves--could be in their place. As we mark another Labor Day, let us recognize and honor those among us who work hardest for the least reward.*