Do SNAP Work Requirements Increase Employment? Evidence from Staggered Waiver Expiration

Abstract

Work requirements for safety net programs remain contentious, with proponents arguing they increase self-sufficiency and critics contending they primarily cause benefit loss without employment gains. This paper estimates the employment effects of SNAP work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) using the staggered expiration of state-level waivers following the 2008 recession. As labor markets recovered, states lost waiver eligibility at different times between 2015 and 2017, creating quasi-experimental variation in work requirement enforcement. Using a difference-in-differences design comparing 18 states that reinstated work requirements in 2015 to 6 states maintaining waivers, I find that work requirements increased employment among the ABAWD-eligible population by approximately 0.77 percentage points (95% CI: 0.41–1.15 pp). This modest positive effect suggests that while work requirements may induce some employment, the magnitude is small relative to documented reductions in SNAP participation, raising questions about the policy's cost-effectiveness as an employment intervention.