Statement by the President in Response to a Report on the Labor Department's on-the-Job Training Programs.
A MAJOR program segment of our manpower policy is already beginning to pay its own way. Secretary of Labor Wirtz has reported to me that the average trainee in the on-the-job training programs developed by the Labor Department is returning the total cost of his training to the Treasury in less than 2 years. There will continue to be dividends for many years to come.
We welcome the fiscal integrity of these programs.
We also welcome the individual dividends paid. Through these training programs tens of thousands of jobless workers are becoming productive citizens. Their dignity and self-respect are being restored.
On-the-job training is an example of a sound economic and social investment. It illustrates clearly how the Nation and the individual may benefit from the wise use of the national wealth.
Note: The President's statement was made public as part of a White House release which included a memorandum from Secretary Wirtz concerning on-the-job training programs.
Secretary Wirtz' memorandum reads in part as follows:
--The average MDTA on-the-job trainee earns $57 a week during 14 weeks of training, and $73 a week as a full-time worker after his training. Thus the average trainee earns $3,572 the first year.
--The cost to the Government of regular on-thejob training averages about $500 a trainee. Some cost more, some less.
--According to the Internal Revenue Service, income taxes on earnings of $3,572 range from $419 for the trainee with no dependents to $74 for trainees with three dependents.
--More than 45 percent of the trainees are single; another 15 percent claim only one dependent; 14 percent have two dependents; 12 percent have three, and the remaining trainees have four or more.
--Of the 182,000 on-the-job trainees approved since the program began in 1963, the incomes of nearly 163,800 are taxable, after deductions.
--Of the 182,000 men and women who have had or are now being given on-the-job training, 163,000 are taxable, after deductions.
--The Federal Government allocated $95.8 million for their training.
--The Federal treasury has so far received back $50.5 million in taxes from these trainees, or better than 53 percent of what was spent on them.
The full text of the memorandum is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 2, p. 1191).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President in Response to a Report on the Labor Department's on-the-Job Training Programs. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238870