Citation
Miller, C., Tessler, B. L., & Van Dok, M. (2012). Strategies to help low-wage workers advance: Implementation and final impacts of the Work Advancement and Support Center (WASC) demonstration. New York: MDRC. [San Diego—EARN!]
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of participation in San Diego—EARN!, a Work Advancement and Support Center (WASC), on participants’ earnings, employment, educational attainment and benefit receipt.
- This study was a randomized controlled trial and used administrative data from the Employment Development Department in California, the San Diego County Health and Human Service Agency, and the National Student Clearinghouse to measure outcomes. The authors used a 12-month follow-up survey with a random subset of participants to measure receipt of work supports and job characteristics.
- The study found that members of the treatment group were 5.7 percentage points more likely than the control group to have ever received Food Stamps one year after the program began. The study also found that members of the treatment group received an average of $155 more in Food Stamps than the control group one year after the program began and an average of $320 more in Food Stamps than the control group three years after the program began.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high for outcomes measured with administrative data. This means we are confident that the estimated effects on these outcomes are attributable to San Diego—EARN! and not to other factors. However, outcomes measured with survey data receive a low causal evidence rating, meaning that we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to San Diego—EARN!; other factors may have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstration (WASC), San Diego—EARN!
Features of the Intervention
The WASC program delivered integrated, intensive retention and advancement services and simplified access to financial work supports for low-wage workers to help them increase their incomes. A One-Stop Career Center, where workforce development and welfare staff worked together in the same unit as a team, offered both types of services at one location. Advancement services included career coaching, skill development, and education to stabilize participants’ employment and help them find better-paying jobs. Key work supports included Food Stamps and health insurance for adults and children. The WASC model in San Diego, California focused mostly on career coaching for advancement in the current job with less emphasis on vocational training. The San Diego program offered inactive participants additional incentives (gas, grocery, or gift cards) to continue with the program. Eligible study participants earned less than $10 per hour, had a household income below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, and had a limited previous connection to the welfare system.
Features of the Study
The authors used a lottery-like process to randomly assign participants to the WASC group or to a control group. The control group received existing employment services with a focus on job placement instead of advancement for low-wage workers. The research sample size was 971; there were 488 people in the WASC group and 483 people in the control group. The authors used a statistical model to compare the outcomes of treatment and control group members.
Study Sites
WASC was implemented in three locations (Dayton, Ohio; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and San Diego, California), and this review examines results for San Diego. Other reviews on this site focus on the other locations.
Findings
- The study found that members of the treatment group were 5.7 percentage points more likely than the control group to have ever received Food Stamps one year after the program began (29.5 percent compared with 23.8 percent).
- Members of the treatment group received an average of $155 more of Food Stamps than the control group one year after the program began.
- Members of the treatment group received an average of $320 more of Food Stamps than the control group three years after the program began.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
Outcomes based on survey data received a low evidence rating because there was high attrition and the authors did not statistically account for all the variables that would merit a moderate rating.
The authors estimated multiple related impacts on outcomes related to short-term and long-term benefit receipt. Performing multiple statistical tests on related outcomes makes it more likely that some impacts will be found statistically significant purely by chance and not because they reflect program effectiveness. The authors did not perform statistical adjustments to account for the multiple tests, so the number of statistically significant findings in these domains is likely to be overstated.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high for outcomes measured with administrative data. This means we are confident that the estimated effects on these outcomes are attributable to San Diego—EARN! and not to other factors. However, outcomes measured with survey data receive a low causal evidence rating, meaning that we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to San Diego—EARN!; other factors may have contributed. This review was conducted in collaboration with the Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review (ESER). Because ESER did not report findings for studies that received a low causal evidence rating, the CLEAR profile does not report the otherwise eligible, low-rated findings either.