The American ethos stresses the importance of pursuing individual opportunity through work. At the same time, work traditionally has enabled employed persons to weave sturdy safety nets that protect themselves and their families by a combination of government social insurance (Social Security and Medicare) and employer-provided benefits (private pensions, group health plans, and disability insurance).

There are two problems with this system: It excludes too many people, and it was designed long ago and needs a thorough overhaul. Approximately 2 million Americans work full time all year, while remaining below the official poverty line. When their children and other family members are included, some 6 million impoverished Americans live in family units in which someone works full time twelve months a year. This is a problem that affects single- and two-parent families alike. For example, during the past decade increases in the Hispanic poverty rate have been chiefly due to lower real incomes among Hispanic workers in two-parent families. About 24 million workers and their dependents risk personal financial disaster because they have no health insurance coverage whatsoever. Further, only about 30 percent of more than 6 million people who are unemployed receive any unemployment compensation; this is the lowest proportion in the program's fifty-year history.

Current policy puts too little emphasis on work opportunities. At the same time, it provides too little protection for those who are seeking work or working at low-paid jobs. Recently passed Federal welfare reform measures begin to move in the needed direction, but much more should be done to improve the incomes, opportunities, and social protections of American workers. We believe that creating an appropriate work-based response depends less on designing one big program and more on putting together many different components of social support for Americans during their working years.