Locke Kicks Off Welfare Reform Spokane Restaurateurs Promise To Hire Willing, Capable Recipients
With a pat on the back and a kick in the rear, the state today begins telling more than 90,000 adult welfare recipients to scour “help wanted” ads.
The Spokane business community, which soon will see 9,000 new job hunters, greeted the end of the 60-year-old public assistance guarantee Thursday with tempered enthusiasm.
Restaurateurs marked the occasion with a pledge to hire willing and capable welfare recipients for the estimated 200 food service jobs open in Spokane.
“There may need to be some change in mentality and some patience, but we are committed to make this work,” said Dave Hooke of Spokane, owner of Senor Froggy, a fast-food Mexican restaurant chain.
The promise, part of a chamber of commerce campaign to help make WorkFirst successful, isn’t a job guarantee.
Recipients must come willing, scrubbed and professional to compete with other job seekers. But businesses say work is available.
“I could place 100 to 150 right now, easy,” said Julie Prafke, president of Humanix, a temporary employment agency. “The challenge will be their ability to go out and do the job. There will really need to be a can-do attitude. But if they want to work, we’ve got jobs.”
With few exceptions, welfare recipients must find work immediately or risk losing benefits. Job training will be offered - but only after a recipient finds a job.
A five-year cap on benefits also kicks in today. The state hopes to drop 10,000 people from its welfare rolls in two years.
“It’s no longer just sitting at home and getting a check,” Gov. Gary Locke said Thursday in Spokane.
Locke and top aides stopped by the South Hill Senor Froggy on Thursday to praise one of Hooke’s employees, a welfare recipient turned assistant manager.
“It’s not difficult to find work you just have to want it,” said Rachel Smith, 24.
A former teenage mom, she spent four years huddling under the welfare umbrella. After drifting through school, she found a $4.90-an-hour job at Senor Froggy and quickly rose to management, earning a $1 hourly raise.
Locke, without pausing for a Senor Froggy taco, zipped to Everett to congratulate an aerospace company for its pledge to hire 200 welfare recipients. Top scale there is $18 an hour.
Social workers point to the wage discrepancy as a barrier to WorkFirst’s goal of reducing poverty.
A 1996 study by Consumer Credit Counseling of Spokane found a family of four needs $18,900 a year to stay above the poverty line. But a full-time minimum wage job pays only $10,400.
“Just putting a person to work will not bring a family out of poverty,” said Julie Pickerel, spokesman for Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs.
Locke calls fast-food jobs a good start that build a work ethic and a resume.
“Getting a job, even an entry-level job, is the key to economic independence,” he said.
Once welfare recipients do that, the state will help them climb the career ladder with short, intense training programs, Locke said. Education will last up to 12 months, compared with the four years of college that welfare used to support.
“The governor’s goals with WorkFirst are three: Find work, find work and find work,” said Larry Tarrer, dean of professional and technical programs at Spokane Community College.
Local community colleges haven’t decided what programs to offer, instead waiting to determine the needs of welfare recipients, said Tarrer.
About 400 current SCC students on welfare who are not majoring in vocational programs likely will have to find work immediately, said Tarrer.
It’s unclear how many jobs are available. The 9,000 new job seekers represent about 5 percent of the total work force in Spokane County.
“My biggest concern for the business community here is that (state officials) are expecting 9,000 to show up and get a job,” said Humanix’s Prafke. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
, DataTimes