At least eighteen states, all led by Republican governors, are due to withdraw from the federal government’s supplementary unemployment compensation scheme which rewards jobless employees with an additional weekly $300 on the grounds that certain Republican leaders believe the subsidies disincentivize workers to get back to work.
IMPORTANT FACTS
- Lowa, Missouri, Alaska, and Mississippi also plan to terminate the benefits on the 12th of June, the earliest day that states are permitted to do so.
- West Virginia, North Dakota, Idaho, Alabama, and Wyoming have indicated that they plan to leave the program on the 19th of June.
- On June 26, Ohio, Georgia, Ohio, Utah, South Dakota, and Arkansas will suspend payments.
- Greg Gianforte, Gov. of Montana, announced that the state would withdraw from the initiative by the 27th of June, citing a workforce crisis in the state.
- Gianforte has stated that Montana will now pay a one-time payment of $1200.
- South Carolina’s Governor Henry McMaster announced that his state would terminate federal payments at June’s end.
- The Governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, declared that on 3rd July the state would withdraw from the program for unemployment benefits.
- Gov Doug Ducey of Arizona announced that they would cease paying federal compensation on 10th July. However, they will offer people a return-to-work incentive of $2 000.
The $300 weekly federal benefit, which is a scaled-down variant of the $600 weekly payout approved last March under the CARES Act to assist millions of employees laid off due to the pandemic, will begin until September 6 in all those states that haven’t left the program.
Republican officials are complaining that the benefits of the program are excessive due to which multiple states led by the GOP are withdrawing from the program. They say that due to the program, businesses are having difficulty hiring. Americans are jobless but labor scarcity is there too.
The minority leader of the Senate has said that they have flooded the zone with checks and everybody enjoys receiving them, and therefore have also enhanced unemployment. while still increasing unemployment. He further asserted that he has learned this week from company owners, hospitals, students, and everybody else around the state that it’s simply more profitable for Americans not to work than it is to work.
Benefits more than the minimum wage
The average American receives $387 per week in unemployment benefits, which increase to $687 with the federal increase. Because there are 40 work hours in a week, this equates to an hourly wage of $17.17 for the average unemployed American–more than double the federal government’s minimum wage.
