CPRC REPORT: Seasonal Employment and Welfare Use in California's Agricultural and Rural Counties
Author: Brady, Henry E.; Sprague, Mary H.
Date Published: 2004
Welfare debates typically focus on two groups:short- and long-term recipients. Short-term recipients descend into poverty once or twice in their lifetime and need temporary assistance to rebound from their misfortune. Long-term recipients fall into poverty and stay on welfare without working. This report examines a third group: seasonal workers who combine work in the summer with welfare in the winter to make ends meet. Seasonal workers go onto welfare because of economic vicissitudes, but unlike short-term recipients, they encounter economic difficulties every year and return again and again to welfare. As with long-term recipients, seasonal workers have a long history of welfare use. But unlike longterm recipients, seasonal workers work every year. Policies designed for the first two groups, such as welfare time limits, do not directly address the needs of seasonal workers and their employment situation.
Date Published: 2004
Welfare debates typically focus on two groups:short- and long-term recipients. Short-term recipients descend into poverty once or twice in their lifetime and need temporary assistance to rebound from their misfortune. Long-term recipients fall into poverty and stay on welfare without working. This report examines a third group: seasonal workers who combine work in the summer with welfare in the winter to make ends meet. Seasonal workers go onto welfare because of economic vicissitudes, but unlike short-term recipients, they encounter economic difficulties every year and return again and again to welfare. As with long-term recipients, seasonal workers have a long history of welfare use. But unlike longterm recipients, seasonal workers work every year. Policies designed for the first two groups, such as welfare time limits, do not directly address the needs of seasonal workers and their employment situation.
