Title: The extra $600 Americans get in weekly unemployment benefits ends this month — how lawmakers are proposing to replace it - MarketWatch
Headings: The extra $600 Americans get in weekly unemployment benefits ends this month — how lawmakers are proposing to replace it
The extra $600 Americans get in weekly unemployment benefits ends this month — how lawmakers are proposing to replace it
Elisabeth Buchwald
Extending the extra $600 could discourage people from returning to work, some lawmakers say
Last month, 4.8 million Americans returned to work, but more than 30 million remain unemployed and could have their benefits slashed by $600 if lawmakers fail to act before July 31.
Referenced Symbols
Temporarily extend the extra $600 through August
Unemployment benefits equal to a worker’s previous wages
Extending the supplemental $600 through Jan 2021
A sliding scale of unemployment benefits tied to state unemployment rates
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‘Unemployment benefits should always be pegged to economic conditions.’
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A return-to-work bonus
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Elisabeth Buchwald
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Content: It’s unclear whether Trump meant extra benefits could drop to $420 extra a week on top of state unemployment benefits, or if the benefits would be equal to 70% of a person’s prior income. Extending the supplemental $600 through Jan 2021
In May, the Democratic-run House passed the $3 trillion HEROS Act, which would, among other things, extend the extra $600 federal unemployment benefit to January 2021. Advertisement
The Congressional Budget Office found that if these benefits were extended through January 2021, an estimated five of every six recipients would receive more in benefits than they would from working those six months. “
If these benefits were extended through January 2021, five of every six recipients would receive more in benefits than they would from working those six months, according to the Congressional Budget Office. ”
“If the benefit of $600 per week was extended, fewer than one in thirty recipients would receive benefits — generally the maximum amount in their state — that were less than 50% of their potential earnings,” the CBO report states. Some have argued those generous benefits will keep people from seeking new jobs. 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. Advertisement
“It’s not true that there’s a pool of jobs out there that people would fill if they weren’t receiving unemployment benefits,” she said. Related: ‘ We are saving every penny we can’: