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
“
‘Unemployment benefits should always be pegged to economic conditions.’
”
A return-to-work bonus
‘I want to hurt him the same way he hurt me’: My husband sprung a prenup on me days before our wedding. He kept all copies
About the Author
Elisabeth Buchwald
Compare Bank Accounts

Content: 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’: What life could look like for this 66-year-old man when he loses all his unemployment benefits next month
For every dollar spent on unemployment insurance, there’s a multiplier effect leading to a 1.64 increase in GDP, according to a 2008 study published by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics MCO, +2.58%. Meanwhile, for every dollar spent on infrastructure projects, U.S. GDP could be expected to increase by a multiple of 1.59. McConnell said in May that the HEROS Act “reads like the speaker of the House pasted together random ideas from her most liberal members and slapped the word ‘coronavirus’ on top of it.” He also referred to it as a Democratic “wish-list.” A sliding scale of unemployment benefits tied to state unemployment rates
Unlike the HEROS Act, one Democratic proposal which has bicameral support calls for additional unemployment benefits that are tied to state unemployment rates.