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Idaho Now Has To Pay People To Go Back To Work
Hotair ^
| 06/16/2020
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 06/16/2020 9:04:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This is a subject that weve been covering here ever since the coronavirus stimulus bill was first being debated in Congress. Having passed a measure providing enhanced unemployment benefits with no cap on the amount of the payments based on the workers previous rate of pay, a condition was created where a majority of the unemployed are now collecting more than they did on their last job. That doesnt provide much of an incentive to go back to work, particularly if you can point to your concerns about the virus as a reason to stay home.
In Idaho, Republican Governor Brad Little and his colleagues would like to lure these idled workers back onto the job and off of the federally enhanced unemployment system with a rather straightforward deal. Theyll simply bribe them to go back to work. Theyre talking about a one-time $1,500 payment if the workers agree to get off of the benefits train and go back on the job. Is this generous or pointless? Well discuss that here today. (CNN)
Idaho will pay jobless residents $1,500 to lure them back to work and off federally enhanced unemployment benefits.
The effort mirrors a proposal being floated by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who must soon decide whether to continue supporting the millions of Americans who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.
Several GOP lawmakers favor return-to-work bonuses such as the one being implemented by Idahos Republican Gov. Brad Little, while congressional Democrats generally want to extend the $600 weekly boost to benefits passed by Congress in March as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
At this point, weve painted ourselves into a corner where were struggling to solve a problem of our own creation. When the enhanced benefits were being debated, Senate Republicans tried to put a cap on the benefits based on the workers previous income, but the Democrats screamed racism, wealthism and every other ism in the book and the GOP folded. Now, as noted above, employers are starting to reopen, but literally tens of millions of people are making more by staying home. What did we think was going to happen?
Im not sure how much of a viable solution Idaho is proposing here. Theyre talking about a one-time payment of $1,500 dollars. The maximum unemployment benefit in Idaho is $405 per week. After you tack on the $600 federal enhancement, thats more than $1,000 per week. Theyll make more in two weeks on unemployment than theyll get from that single check. How many people is that going to bring off the bench if they werent already motivated to get back to work?
Of course, at least in theory, if you refuse a job thats offered to you youre supposed to disqualify yourself from unemployment benefits. But thats only if the state finds out that you declined the job. If your previous boss calls or emails you to say that your position is once again available, will the state find out about it and take action? The threat of being caught up in a benefits fraud case might be enough to scare some workers back to work, but certainly not all of them.
What we really need is some sort of notification system so that employers can publicly announce that they are ready to do business and their former workers are welcome back. If that data can be parsed against the unemployment rolls, we could probably get closer to the saturation point. And you wouldnt need to send everyone a check to get them back to work, either.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS: idaho; unemployment; welfare; work
To: SeekAndFind
I have an easier solution.
Cut the unemployment benefit now that the shutdown is basically over.
2
posted on
06/16/2020 9:07:24 AM PDT
by
metmom
( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.....)
To: SeekAndFind
Whoa. I’m moving to Idaho.
To: metmom
Some folks here had expressed confidence that the state unemployment agencies would be able to detect when the unemployed folks began turning down offers to return to work.
They were wrong.
In addition, there is no incentive for the unemployed to seek other employment if their employer is not hiring folks back.
Most people don’t work because they like to work, they work for the money. If they make close to what they were making without working (or more, of course), the majority of people will stay on unemployment as long as they can.
It is always more fun to be riding on the carriage instead of pulling it.
4
posted on
06/16/2020 9:12:48 AM PDT
by
cgbg
(Kneeling is a half measure--lefties need to dig a six foot hole and bury themselves in it.)
To: SeekAndFind
The shirt I’ve seen women wear has a map of the state on it and the words:
Idaho?
No, you da ho.
5
posted on
06/16/2020 9:13:01 AM PDT
by
frank ballenger
(End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
To: SeekAndFind
Pennsylvania its possible to get $800 a week with no previous job history.
Not out of work.
Never looked for work, never had a job.
True it only lasts until the end of July then it drops to a mere $800 a month.
Why would anyone look for a job when they can have the spring and summer off for $40,000+ as an annualized salary for those months?
6
posted on
06/16/2020 9:13:38 AM PDT
by
PittsburghAfterDark
(There is no one more racist than a white liberal.)
To: SeekAndFind
We already had during Obama and now, “XX Million Not in Work Force.”
books such as
Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis (New Threats to Freedom Series) , 2016 ,
by Nicholas Eberstadt
discuss an ongoing trend that has to be worse now that they see firsthand how good it is to lie around, eat, drink, watch TV, play video and go out to have fun.
Or, go to work and have productivity standards, goals to meet, customer ratings of insults or praise, comparisons to other wage earners and putdowns from arrogant bosses.
7
posted on
06/16/2020 9:20:14 AM PDT
by
frank ballenger
(End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
To: SeekAndFind
That doesnt provide much of an incentive to go back to work, particularly if you can point to your concerns about the virus as a reason to stay home. If they don't have pre-existing conditions, it's back to work. An interview and medical disclosure form signed by the employee should be an easy way to determine if they actually do have pre-existing conditions.
8
posted on
06/16/2020 9:26:57 AM PDT
by
dragnet2
(Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
To: SeekAndFind
Govt handouts make people lazy? Who knew?
End the gravy train and people will shuffle back to the workplace.
9
posted on
06/16/2020 9:30:25 AM PDT
by
lurk
To: cgbg
Every position hiring at least in Colorado is near minimum wage, back-breaking manual labor warehouse work. Don’t qualify due the lifting, bending and standing requirements. Maybe I’ll apply just to file a workmans comp claim once my back goes out after 1 day of work. The other is extremely low-paid sub minimum wage gig wirk, using your own vehicle. What was doable at $1.50/gal is a whole lot less doable at $2.40/gal.
No IT or Software Engineering jobs due to extreme Indian racism against all Americans.
Waiting for August so I can take my DOT hair folicle drug screen (I haven’t had my hair 1 1/2” to 2” long since high school almost 40 years ago) and drive a truck.
10
posted on
06/16/2020 9:34:32 AM PDT
by
Starcitizen
(Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
To: SeekAndFind
Around here they are calling it the “Coronacation”. I don’t get out much but went to a town 40 miles away yesterday. Interesting to see the beer joints with trucks and cars all around them mid-afternoon.
Locals have cut down large trees to block access to swimming holes down at the big creek to prevent access by the townies who were trashing the place and getting into drunken fights.
This truly has gone on long enough. They will never go back to work so long as they are paid more to do nothing.
11
posted on
06/16/2020 9:36:27 AM PDT
by
Sequoyah101
(We are governed by the consent of the governed and we are fools for allowing it.)
To: SeekAndFind
No wonder they can’t find people.
Their (978) area code number is in MA. That is the area code for the part of MA north of Boston.
To: SeekAndFind
Part of the problem is the people staffing the unemployment offices are working hard to ensure their long term job security, they work to keep people on unemployment.
She knows a woman who was a long term office manager for decades. She was scheduled to retire shortly after the Corona B$ hit in the middle of March.
She informed the folks at the unemployment office of that reality, and they said don’t worry about it. Then, they signed her for 2 months of unemployment.
She is getting her retirement pay & SS and still some unemployment pay in spite of being retired and now working from her home 1 day every 2 weeks to handle payrolls and other issues.
13
posted on
06/16/2020 9:44:17 AM PDT
by
Grampa Dave
( Can I trust that you and I will get out and vote for Trump, this November!)
To: SeekAndFind
All the crap that they threw into that $2.2 Trillion Dollar Kung Flu Stimulus Package will never be completely known.
Nothing more than Legalized Fraud. Remember the outcry when all those Katrina $2,000 Debit Cards were used at Casinos and Strip Clubs?
That was only part of a $50 Billion Dollar Government giveaway, a rounding error compared to the Kung Flu Government giveaway.
To: Grampa Dave
“”””Part of the problem is the people staffing the unemployment offices are working hard to ensure their long term job security, they work to keep people on unemployment.”
I take it you don’t know anyone who actually works in the Unemployment Insurance office because you could not be more wrong.
To: SeekAndFind
Normal people have to be paid to work.
OTOH, I went 6½ years without a paycheck, working for two different start-ups...
16
posted on
06/16/2020 10:01:27 AM PDT
by
null and void
(2020 is one big Babylon Bee article)
To: cgbg
“Most people dont work because they like to work, they work for the money.”
Interesting topic there, I have had jobs where I looked forward to Monday morning and others where I DID NOT! When I ran my own business I lived and breathed work. Now I have a very adequate income without working but I am frustrated by being too weak to do anything involving any exertion. I am basically an ambulatory patient in my own home. I dream of the time, just a couple of years ago, when I could effortlessly move a one hundred pound obstacle with one hand.
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