Are you one of the many American workers that got laid off due to the coronavirus? You have been able to bring home an additional $600 a week thanks to the CARES Act, but that could all be going away next month.
Last month, the democratic led House of Representatives passed what it calls the HEROS Act, which would extend these benefits until January of 2021.
If this Act was to pass the Senate (which they are saying it WON’T, as it is written), 5 out of every 6 of those receiving the benefits would make more money by staying home, instead of returning to work.
In other words, there would be absolutely no incentive for those people to return to work. If you are going to get paid for staying home versus working — you’re going to stay home. No Question.
But extending the $600 unemployment benefit would mean that Americans would have more money to spend in stores, and that could ultimately lead to lower unemployment, Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank based in Washington, D.C., said.
Market Watch
There are several choices on the negotiations table. The goal is to keep the economy stimulated, and for Americans to be able to keep feeding money into the economy, KEEPING it stimulated.
One choice is to approve the House recommendations, and allow the $600 per week benefits to continue through January, no matter what happens with the coronavirus.
Another choice is a “proposal, known as the Worker Relief and Security Act, would allow Americans to continue to receive the additional $600 benefit for as long as the national emergency or state emergency for COVID-19 is in effect. Once the national or state emergency is terminated, jobless Americans would receive benefits based on their state’s unemployment level.”
Yet a THIRD option would offer an incentive for the person to RETURN to work, “which would provide an additional $450 a week for Americans who return to work.”
Given that more than 15 million unemployed Americans are categorized as ‘temporary layoffs,’ we need to be sure that there’s no financial disincentive for these individuals to get back into the workforce when those jobs become available to them again.
Market Watch
There are, of course, opponents of THIS option, that say this incentive would lead American’s to take the wrong job — just getting the first job they are offered.
If lawmakers fail to act next month, the extra unemployment benefits will just disappear, and nothing new will come of all this new stimulus talk.
Basically, it is all in the hands of lawmakers, and we really don’t know what they are going to decide. We just have to trust they have the best interest of the American people in mind as they make these decisions. We will just have to wait and see what happens in the next month.
