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Are you tired of this tired idea floating around that people who turn to unemployment insurance are "better off" not going back to work because the feds are providing a $600 supplement? Me too. #THREAD (1/9) https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/838879361/bitter-taste-for-coffee-shop-owner-as-new-600-jobless-benefit-closed-her-busines
(2/9) For starters, people fought hard to increase weekly benefit amounts to $600 for laid off workers recognizing that the wage replacment was totally inadequate to help ppl meet their basic needs.
The supplement was added and enacted in the #CARES Act https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/unemployment-benefits-cares-act-covid-pandemic/index.html
The supplement was added and enacted in the #CARES Act https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/unemployment-benefits-cares-act-covid-pandemic/index.html
(3/9) But the $600 supplement is TEMPORARY, only lasting through the end of July. And this assumes that someone who claims jobless benefits will draw down the supplement for an extended period of time
(4/9) The median weekly benefit is $300. So with the supplement, UI claimants can now get roughly $900 per week, pre tax. YES, UI BENEFITS ARE TAXABLE INCOME.
True, this is more than what a full time worker on minimum wage would make on a weekly basis. BUT IT IS VERY TEMPORARY.
True, this is more than what a full time worker on minimum wage would make on a weekly basis. BUT IT IS VERY TEMPORARY.
(5/9) Here's where the stories get muddy for me, and really only try to perpetuate some myth about dependency on the system. Back to this story about he coffee shop closing down because the owner thinks workers do better on unemployment benefits. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/838879361/bitter-taste-for-coffee-shop-owner-as-new-600-jobless-benefit-closed-her-busines
(6/9) No employer can blame workers or UI for having to close down a business. For one, in order to draw down UI benefits period, you have to have been involuntarily laid off. If workers choose not to return to you when things pick back up, then that is their RIGHT
(7/9) I won't even get into the fact that you were paying workers well-below a living wage to begin with. But the idea that workers are better off drawing down benefits compared to working in this situation... it is just way off base and super short-sighted.
(8/9) Businesses had to close down because of a MASSIVELY UNPRECEDENTED HEALTH AND ECONOMIC EVENT that has shaken the entire globe, not b/c workers turn to UI to help make ends meet. This is a wildly dangerous claim & it is sad to see even SMALL biz go this route.
(9/9) We have to RESIST efforts in policy and political discourses that attempt to reinforce "culture of dependency" myths in our #safetynet and place the burden of market failures on low wage workers. This ain't it!
