American Workforce Act
The American Workforce Act would create a new federal program, administered by a dedicated American Workforce Division within the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, to offer an alternative path to college through paid, job-based training. The core idea is to pair employers with prospective trainees in “American workforce contracts” that combine on-the-job structured work with educational training. Trainees must be U.S. citizens who have a high school diploma or equivalent and have not earned a bachelor’s degree. Employers receive subsidies to fund the educational training portion, pay the trainee (wages), and may offer a hiring bonus upon successful completion and hire. The bill also imposes governance, oversight, disclosure, and evaluation requirements to track outcomes, enforce compliance, and compare the program to existing career and technical education or apprenticeship programs. It envisions a nationwide, transparent system designed to expand high-demand, high-wage job opportunities without requiring a college degree. Key features include a standardized but flexible contract process, a wage floor pegged to county median income, a 25% wage increase upon successful completion for current employees who transition into a completed project, whistleblower protections, public disclosure of project data, and periodic Congress-directed evaluation. The act would require regulatory implementation within three months of enactment and would authorize ongoing subsidies and hiring bonuses for eligible participants, subject to appropriations and performance metrics.
Key Points
- 1Establishment of the American Workforce Division within the Economic Development Administration to administer the program, approve contracts, maintain records, publish a standardized contract template, handle complaints, and issue annual and long-range reports to Congress.
- 2Creation of the American workforce program and American workforce contracts, pairing a trainee with an employer for a term (not shorter than 6 weeks) that combines structured on-the-job work with an educational workforce training component, with competency-based credentials encouraged.
- 3Eligibility and wages: Trainees must be U.S. citizens with a high school diploma or equivalent and no bachelor’s degree; employers must pay wages not less than the higher of the federal minimum wage or local/state minimum wage, and the trainee must receive wages during the training period.
- 4Subsystem subsidies and incentives: Employers can receive a workforce education subsidy to cover training costs (not wages) and, upon hiring the trainee as a full-time employee after completion, receive a $1,000 bonus. The subsidy has a cap (up to $9,000 per trainee, paid in quarterly installments) and other conditions.
- 5Public disclosures and transparency: Employers must provide a public disclosure document detailing costs, wages, hours, credentials, and related information; after three years, enhanced disclosures include completion and hire rates and average earnings, all to be publicly accessible.
- 6Compliance, enforcement, and whistleblower protections: The Director can investigate noncompliance, levy penalties up to the amount of funds received by the employer in the past two years, suspend or warn employers, and provide for appeals; whistleblower protections prohibit retaliation against trainees who file complaints or participate in inquiries.
- 7Evaluation and sunset: A comprehensive 5-year congressionally mandated evaluation comparing the program to existing apprenticeship and workforce programs, plus various data on completion, retention, earnings, credentials earned, and program uptake; regulations required to implement the program must be issued within three months of enactment.