In a recent column, Pennsylvania State Rep. Eric Nelson asked a very important question: Where have all the workers gone?
“It’s a mystery to many,” he writes. “We see the help-wanted signs, bonuses for fast food workers, and employers boasting high starting wages, yet we are just not finding the workforce.”
Rep. Nelson correctly pinpoints the root of the problem—the government has provided incentives for workers to stay on the sidelines through welfare expansion. One of the biggest culprits is Medicaid, which has been expanded in Pennsylvania to include able-bodied adults rather than prioritizing the vulnerable individuals the program was intended to support. States like Pennsylvania have also been making requests of D.C. to waive the federally mandated work requirements for able-bodied adults with no dependents (ABAWDs) in the food stamp program.
It’s a major problem thanks to Medicaid expansion and anti-work food stamp policies that allowed able-bodied adults to flood these welfare programs. The vast majority of Medicaid expansion enrollees earn no income at all. Waiving the ABAWD work requirement in food stamps and the expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied adults has allowed those who can and should be working to remain trapped in government dependency and has thus resulted in a major worker shortage. As Rep. Nelson notes, bypassing work requirements could leave as many as 200,000 able-bodied adults without dependents in Pennsylvania out of the workforce for another year. Letting able-bodied adults stay on welfare long-term without work also harms the truly needy who depend on welfare programs and are on waiting lists for care, and it hurts the taxpayers who are funding the program.
Now that we know where the workers have gone, how can states get them back into the workforce?
For Pennsylvania and for other states around the country, the answer is simple. The best way is to implement work requirements. Requiring able-bodied adults without dependents to work, train, or volunteer can dramatically increase wages and push individuals out of dependency.
States can also work to reduce the impact of Medicaid expansion, if not roll it back entirely.
At the federal level, Congress should pass legislation allowing states to implement work requirements for able-bodied adults in the Medicaid program without requiring a waiver.
Congress can also pass the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act to require approval of costly federal regulations, like the unilateral massive expansion of food stamp benefits, which is fueling the worker shortage and rising inflation.
Click here to learn more about other ways states and the federal government can encourage work over welfare.
