New research reveals falsity of Republican claims that unemployment advantages preserve individuals out of labor

“From the perspective of the first week of June 2020, with 8 weeks of additional UI payments remaining and states reopening their economies, only workers in the worst-paid jobs (catering services with a typical wage of $ 460 per week) are employed) would be roughly indifferent between accepting an offer and remaining unemployed, ”according to a working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “The value of a job, especially in a depressed labor market, greatly outweighs the value of the temporary additional UI income.”

The additional $ 600 a week that Congress passed in the first few months of the pandemic would have a “moderate effect” on whether people have taken work, the authors estimated, but $ 300 a week only has a “small one.” Effect”. As small as in, if you have 28 people and seven of them got job offers, you’d turn it down because they’re getting that extra $ 300 a week.

This isn’t the first study to find Republicans’ claims about over-generous unemployment benefits keeping people out of the workforce false. One of Yale economists noted that at the $ 600 level, “No evidence that high user interface [unemployment insurance] Replacement rates resulted in job losses or slowed labor recruitment, ”and one from a University of Massachusetts economist focused on non-graduate workers who“ provided no evidence to support the claim that the [Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation] has slowed the recovery of the labor market. “Since, according to the Census Bureau, one in three unemployed people says they still struggle to pay for basic necessities, the whole message,” People feel so comfortable receiving unemployment checks that they have no incentive to work “far from the grassroots.

Republicans don’t let any of this get in the way – not the falling new jobless claims, not the gap between the number of jobs and the pre-pandemic number of jobs, not the studies that show $ 300 a year a week doesn’t keep people away Labor market far away. Creating a desperate workforce for employers to find low-wage jobs with no benefits is a Republicans’ wet dream, and they hope to see it through. Millions of unemployed will pay the price.