The impact of state and federal minimum wage increases on employment outcomes for tanf participants

In July 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) into law, satisfying his vow to “end welfare as we know it.” The resulting program—Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—places strict work requirements and time limits on program participants. The preponderance of evidence suggests that the program has done little to improve participants’ ability to rise out of poverty. Recently, federal, state, and local governments have turned their focus to increasing the minimum wage as a mechanism for lifting people out of poverty, but little is known about the effect minimum wage increases have on the economic well-being of TANF program participants. This study examined the impact of increases in federal and state minimum wage levels on employment outcomes for families that participated in the TANF program between the years 2008 and 2013.