ABSTRACT
The retrenchment of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Old Age Pension, and the Unemployment Insurance programs beginning in the 1980s marked the end of the post- World War II expansion of the US welfare state. The weakening of the welfare state's regulatory functions first became apparent in the AFDC program. By the mid-1970s, the welfare critics had concluded that too few women on AFDC entered the labor market despite the availability of jobs that were increasingly dependent on cheap female labor, and too many lived outside of marriage. Due to the downward pressure on wages in some local labor markets, wages fell below the AFDC grant. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) fed into the administration's economic recovery plan by making it much more difficult for women to qualify for AFDC benefits. The Family Support Act (FSA) went beyond the OBRA cuts to specifically target the work behavior of poor women on welfare.
