If you can make $18/hr sitting at home doing nothing, how does raising the pay from $12 pre-pandemic to $14 today induce you to get off the couch and work? At $20/hr, those jobs don’t exist. This is a huge, massive problem as the amount you get from not working is basically right at the median salary in the US of around $40k/year - basically half the country can make the same or more not working and another large chunk is close enough it may make them think twice. Why work for $45k/year if I can make almost the same thing not working.
Couple that with working under the table (no taxes), on your timetable and you’d be nuts to go back to a 8 - 5 grind.
Exactly, in addition one pays less taxes, and if you have children you get even more free money.
What is the tax difference on those two incomes?
I suspect that the ‘don’t work incentive’ is much larger than being claimed.
There are typically ‘cliffs’ in the law that are not being factored in. Such as when the ‘free health care’ stops.