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This article presents the initial findings of a two-year qualitative research (2019-2021) conducted in an employment enterprise (EBE in French) located in a working-class neighborhood marked by immigration and deindustrialization. It raises the question of the role of the “Territoires Zéro Chômeur de Longue Durée” (TZCLD) – or zero long-term unemployment zone program – in reducing poverty, by examining its contribution to integrating the wage society through the quality of the work it offers in the dynamics of poverty alleviation. The study shows that the employees recruited under this scheme perceive their work as having little value, particularly because of its internal organization. Their trajectories before and after entering the program reveal their experience of a downgraded social status. These two characteristics lead us to consider this work as lacking quality, and this invites us to question how the system places the issue of employment at the center, regardless of the quality of the proposed work.