{"id":11933,"date":"2021-08-10T14:01:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T18:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2021-09-05T16:21:53","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T20:21:53","slug":"unemployed-workers-fight-early-cuts-in-covid-benefits-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/2021\/08\/10\/unemployed-workers-fight-early-cuts-in-covid-benefits-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of Millions of Unemployed Scheduled to\u00a0Expire Sept. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By GREGORY N. HEIRES<\/strong><\/p>\n

An estimated 7.5 million people will lose their extra $300 weekly\u00a0Covid-19 unemployment benefit on Sept. 6\u2014unless the federal government decides at the last moment to extend their coverage.<\/p>\n

The expiration follows the decision of 26 states to end the federally-funded unemployment weekly benefit of millions of other workers, in some states, months\u00a0before the September cutoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still struggling with a pandemic-induced downturn,\u201d said Trudy Goldberg, the National Jobs for All Network chair. \u201cMillions of people continue to be out of work. We believe it is both premature and cruel for states to end this vital, extra COVID-19 benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

All but two of the 26 states that denied the benefits are led by Republican governors, who said they were carrying out the cuts to spur hiring. But so far, there is little evidence that the cuts are having that impact.<\/p>\n

Unemployed workers and advocacy groups mobilized\u2014in some\u00a0cases successfully\u2014against the state plans to carry out early cuts of the federal government\u2019s extra pandemic unemployment benefits. At least seven states faced lawsuits over the cuts.<\/p>\n

In July, a judge in Maryland rejected Republican Gov. Larry\u00a0Hogan\u2019s lawsuit to block the state\u2019s plan to cut off benefits.\u00a0In Indiana, a judge held up a cutoff of COVID unemployment benefits to 230,000 unemployed workers.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Another fightback effort included a Facebook group of 1,800\u00a0Tennesseans that sued Gov. Bill Lee and the State of Tennessee\u00a0for\u00a0stopping federal unemployment benefits<\/a>\u00a0more than two months\u00a0before the expiration scheduled for September.<\/p>\n

In June, the\u00a0grassroots groups, Unemployed Workers Union of\u00a0Ohio and Unemployed Action Ohio\u2014with support from the Ohio\u00a0Organizing Collaborative\u2014held a news conference at the\u00a0<\/a>Statehouse to protest Gov.\u00a0Mike DeWine\u2019s benefit cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cuts Fail to Spur Hiring<\/strong>
\nEarlier this year, the National Employment Law Project estimated that\u00a0more than 4.7 million workers stand to lose the $300 supplement\u00a0in the 26 states.\u00a0But the states\u2019 attacks on unemployment benefits went beyond the\u00a0$300 cut. Twenty-two states also cut other federal\u00a0pandemic benefits as well as state benefits. NELP estimated that would\u00a0leave 2.3 million workers without any federal and state assistance at all.<\/p>\n

About a month after the two dozen GOP-led states began slashing the\u00a0federal government\u2019s extra benefit, a group of Morgan Stanley\u00a0economists found the cuts had little effect on the labor market\u2014no more than such factors as a lack of\u00a0child care and\u00a0transportation or health concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cConservative cuts in unemployment benefits make it harder\u00a0for people to reflect on whether they want to go back to work,\u00a0even as COVID cases are rising and even while average wages\u00a0stay low, \u201dsaid historian Frank Stricker, author of \u201cAmerican\u00a0Unemployment: Past, Present, and Future\u201d and a National Jobs\u00a0for All Network board member. \u201cDespite\u00a0the stories\u00a0about\u00a0employers having to raise pay\u00a0to attract workers,\u00a0real hourly\u00a0wages (in purchasing power)\u00a0have fallen more than 2% over the\u00a0year,\u201d according to Stricker.\u00a0\u201cThe shortage of workers is not short\u00a0enough to increase wages faster than prices. Making more people seek work right away means less pressure for employers to raise pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, Biden dismissed the suggestion that the extra $300 benefit is a disincentive for unemployed workers to return to work. The pandemic led to 22 million job losses, Biden said at that time.<\/p>\n

The truth is\u00a0that for many workers, the lack of child care, poorly-paying jobs, a fear\u00a0about exposure to Covid-19, a reduction in public transportation,\u00a0unstable jobs without health coverage and sick leave and other benefits,\u00a0and considerations about a career change are more important factors\u00a0than unemployment insurance, as they weigh their decision to return to\u00a0work.<\/p>\n

In his podcast, Economic Update, economist Richard D. Wolff\u00a0charged that the Republican-led states were answering the call of\u00a0businesses to make workers return to their jobs while providing\u00a0inadequate compensation.\u00a0\u201cLabor Shortage?\u201d Wolff said. \u201cListen, Jack. You raise the wages; the shortage will vanish.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, NJFAN Chair Goldberg took a similar position and expressed support for the grassroots groups in Ohio and other states fighting against the early cutoff of the weekly $300 benefit.<\/p>\n

In June, President Joe Biden said it \u201cmakes sense\u201d for the federal\u00a0government to stick with its plan for the benefits to expire in\u00a0September.\u00a0He was right to criticize states for opting to end the federal benefit early. Unfortunately, the president doesn\u2019t feel the Sept. 6 expiration is also premature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By GREGORY N. HEIRES An estimated 7.5 million people will lose their extra $300 weekly\u00a0Covid-19 unemployment benefit on Sept. 6\u2014unless the federal government decides at the last moment to extend their coverage. The expiration follows the decision of 26 states to end the federally-funded unemployment weekly benefit of millions of other workers, in some states,… Read More Benefits of Millions of Unemployed Scheduled to\u00a0Expire Sept. 6<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[157,159,160],"class_list":["post-11933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-federal-unemployment-benefits","tag-grassroots-groups","tag-pandemic-unemployment-benefits"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/njfac.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}