July 9, 2026
Americans Still Believe in Work. The AI Crowd Hasn’t Gotten the Memo
Promises of vast new work-free benefits seem somewhere between a believe-it-when-I-see-it vision and just the latest liberal plan to expand an already-bloated welfare state.
July 9, 2026
How to Strengthen the Climb From the Safety Net
Executive summary Wisconsin has long benefited from low poverty rates and relatively high labor force…
June 29, 2026
Discussing Medicaid work requirements: Corinth on C-SPAN’s ‘Washington Journal’
Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility Deputy Director Kevin Corinth discusses Medicaid work requirements on…
June 3, 2026
Stranded by the Safety Net: Addressing Benefit Cliffs to Assist Families and Businesses
Chairman Ernst, Ranking Member Markey, and members of the Small Business Committee. Thank you for…
March 25, 2026
Compiling My Work on Work Incentives
At the American Enterprise Institute Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility, which I run, we’re…
June 24, 2025
Putting the CBO’s Estimates of SNAP’s Work Requirement into Context
Recent proposals to expand the work requirement in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have…
June 17, 2025
Work Requirements For Medicaid Could Increase Income and Reduce Poverty
New Congressional Budget Office figures last week indicate that the reconciliation bill passed by the House…
May 29, 2025
How Non-disabled Medicaid Recipients Without Children Spend Their Time
The reconciliation bill passed by the United States House of Representatives imposes community engagement requirements…
May 28, 2025
An Evaluation of Approaches to Cut and Reform SNAP
House Republicans narrowly passed their version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last week, and…
May 23, 2025
SNAP and Employment: What Is the Evidence?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reduces employment incentives among eligible individuals because benefits provide income support independent of work. Work requirements are intended to counteract these labor supply disincentives by mandating that recipients work or participate in work-related activities to maintain eligibility. Evidence consistently shows the implementation of SNAP work requirements reduces program participation, while findings on employment effects are more mixed. Overall, the evidence suggests that SNAP may discourage work and that work requirements can mitigate these disincentives in some contexts, though employment impacts vary across populations and policy environments.
May 20, 2025
The Share of Medicaid Recipients in Compliance with the House Bill’s Community Engagement Requirement
The reconciliation proposal approved by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2025 would impose community engagement requirements on nondisabled, working-age Medicaid recipients without dependent children, requiring at least 80 hours per month of work, training, education, or community service during a specified number of months to maintain eligibility. Analysis using Survey of Income and Program Participation data indicates that, as of December 2022, 44–60 percent of the 18.2 million recipients subject to the requirement would already be in compliance, depending on how many months of participation states require. As a result, 7.3 million–10.3 million recipients would need to increase their work or other qualifying activities to retain Medicaid coverage.